The President of the Czech Republic Václav Havel spoke at Florida International University on Monday to an audience of approximately 1,000 students, faculty and members of the community. President Havel used his visit to South Florida to address Cubans on the island as well as those in exile. He expressed his solidarity in their struggle against a communist regime. "I think that one of the most diabolical instruments for subjugating some people and fooling other is the special Communist language," said Havel, a poet and writer credited with leading his country's Velvet Revolution in 1989, which separated it from the Soviet

Union. "To all those who have not lost the will to resist arbitrary force and lies, may your dreams be fulfilled." Havel's presentation was followed by a panel discussion including Tomas Pojar, Executive Director, People in Need Foundation; Carlos Alberto Montaner, Cuban writer and journalist; Marifeli Pérez-Stable, FIU Professor; Jaime Suchlicki, University of Miami Professor and Ricardo Bofill, Founder of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights. To view Havel's presentation and the panel discussion, . . .

Havel's Speech

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Streaming Audio of Speech

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• English (part 2)
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• Voices from the Island of Freedom