Marco Rubio: “What has always impressed me with Berta Soler is that he has refused to leave Cuba”

Miami, United States. – At the delivery ceremony of the Lech Wałęsa Solidarity Award to the leader of the Ladies of Blanco, Berta Soler, held on Tuesday in MiamiMarco Rubio stressed that the dissident has remained on the island despite repression and described communism as a “scourge.”

“What has always impressed me with Berta Soler and those who accompany her is that she has refused to leave,” said the current US Secretary of State added that this “negative to continue living under the conditions in which she lives, which are incredibly oppressive and deny her basic rights, including the right to go to Church every Sunday, is a source of enormous admiration for all of us.”

Rubio, the Cuban American who has reached the highest rank in American politics, stressed that, despite his “economic” and “social” failure, communism “remains a scourge.” “Despite its destructive influence in each society that has touched, it is still present in different corners of the world,” he said, referring to the Polish experience and the history of the enclosure where the event took place, the Biltmore Hotel in Miami.

The Secretary of State also emphasized the civic and peaceful character of Soler’s activism. “She was not a political person. Her disposition to step forward, because she identified and saw oppression, saw injustices and was willing not only to raise her voice to criticize them, but to act against them in a peaceful way; that has defined the rest of their life,” he said.

He also considered that greater public dissemination of his case is essential: “Not only for the prize that accompanies him, but for saying his name and telling the story before these cameras in a way that hopefully is seen by more people.”

In a stretch of his speech, Rubio said that “freedom is not really a natural human instinct” and that rights are “very new” in history: “rights that come from your creator, from God; the right to a government that really works for the people, not a people who work for the government.” He warned that freedoms should be sustained with facts: “It is easier to criticize a regime in social networks and in press releases. It is much more difficult to confront it in person, with real consequences in your daily life.”

Rubio also pointed out that recognition is not “only a plaque”, but “a prize aimed at continuing to carry out that work.” He thanked that the ceremony would be held in southern Florida, a community that “knows this issue so well and has lived.”

The Cuban American politician dedicated a segment to praising the role of Poland in democratic causes. “His government in Poland has been an extraordinary ally in the cause of freedom,” said Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Radosław Sikorski, who was present at the ceremony.

Sikorski himself gave the award: “For me it is an honor to deliver the prize to Berta Soler, for his courage, resilience and determination,” he said.

Due to the restrictions imposed by the Cuban regime to Soler, this could not attend the ceremony in person; The award was collected by Irma Santos de Mas Canosa, while the opponent intervened online: “Today I cannot be for the communist tyranny of Cuba, which imposes the exit without return, a condition that I do not accept, because I stay in Cuba. The ladies of Blanco and I thank you for this recognition, which is the result of 22 years of struggle in Cuba for freedom, for political prisoners.”

The Solidaridad Lech Wałęsa prize was created in 2014 by Sikorski initiative, was reactivated in 2024 after several years of suspension and awarded a statuette and an endowment of $ 275,000. Among its winners are, in previous editions, Mustafa Dzhemilev, Zhanna Nemtsova and Pavel Latushka. The selection committee is chaired by Lech Wloyęsa and includes Polish ministers and a Helsinki Human Rights Foundation representative.

Over more than two decades, the white ladies – founded by Laura Pollán in 2003 – have consolidated as a symbol of peaceful resistance in Cuba. In 2005 they received the Sájarov Award for Freedom of Thought of the European Parliament.