WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush blistered Fidel Castro's government in Cuba on Wednesday and challenged the world to help the people of the communist island shed Castro's rule and become a free society.
President Bush kisses Marlenis Gonzalez, whose husband is a political prisoner in Cuba, after speaking Wednesday.
"Now is the time to support the democratic movement growing on the island," Bush said in an address at the U.S. State Department. "Now is the time to stand with the Cuban people as they stand up for their liberty. And now is the time for the world to put aside its differences and prepare for Cuban's transitions to a future of freedom and progress and promise."
Bush added, "The dissidents of today will be the nation's leaders. And when freedom finally comes, they will surely remember who stood with them."
In his first major address on Cuban policy in four years, Bush sought to refocus world attention on life in Cuba under Castro He spoke of citizens there who he said have no freedom of employment or expression, who live in dire circumstances and who fear beatings for pursuing the lives they want.
"As with all totalitarian systems, Cuba's regime no doubt has other horrors still unknown to the rest of the world," Bush said. "Once revealed, they will shock the conscience of humanity, and they will shame the regime's defenders and all those democracies that had been silent."
In a brief essay published Tuesday, Castro pre-empted Bush's address, saying that the U.S. leader is threatening the world with nuclear war and widespread famine.
"The danger of a massive world famine is aggravated by Mr. Bush's recent initiative to transform foods into fuel," the 81-year-old wrote, referring to U.S. support for alternative energy initiatives using corn and other food crops to produce biofuels.
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