Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday called for freedom in Cuba, saying the country's youth wants opportunity to "achieve their potential to deliver bright future for themselves."
Pompeo's remarks came during a meeting of the Organization of American States, an organization headquartered near the White House that brings together political leaders from across the Western Hemisphere.
The secretary of state took the opportunity to mention issues across the Americas, including the situation in Cuba where he said the country's youth desire freedom not found under Communist rule.
"In Cuba today, we see an expectation that change is inevitable and that it can't come quickly enough," Pompeo said. "Young Cubans, born under a dictatorship, are uninterested in hollow revolutionary slogans."
He said young Cubans demand opportunities not currently found under the leadership of President Miguel Díaz-Canel and Raúl Castro, the country's former president and the current First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba.
"They demand educational opportunities, free from political constraints or a totalitarian regime's repression. They want what youth everywhere else wants: opportunities to use their talents, to exercise their voice, achieve their potential to deliver bright future for themselves," Pompeo said. "As Democratic societies, we must support young people in Cuba and elsewhere in the Hemisphere in their hopes for Democratic change."
Cuba has been controlled by its Communist Party regime for nearly 60 years. As a result, many Cubans have spent their entire lives not knowing what the country was like without a totalitatrian regime running the island nation.