MIAMI, Oct 31 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush vowed Sunday to "keep the pressure on" to rid Cuba of Fidel Castro, an appeal to the hard-line Cuban exiles Bush counted on to win Florida and the White House.
"I strongly believe the people of Cuba should be free from the tyrant," Bush told a crowd of supporters here two days before the election, winning the rally's loudest cheers and chants of "Viva Bush" -- long live Bush.
"Over the next four years, we will continue to press hard and ensure that the gift of freedom finally reaches the men and women of Cuba," he said. "We will not rest, we will keep the pressure on, until the Cuban people enjoy the same freedoms in Havana they received here in America."
The crowd packed into the Coconut Grove Convention Center cheered, screamed and applauded, waving pro-Bush signs in English and Spanish and chanting "four more years!"
Like most Republican candidates in Florida, Bush's hopes of victory here rest in large part on the support of the state's sizeable anti-Castro Cuban exile community.
Earlier speakers had fired up the audience with attacks on Democratic White House hopeful John Kerry, with one asking "who do the enemies of America favor?" and then thanking Bush for the global war on terrorism.
The president was to make three stops in this pivotal state before going to another critical battleground state: Ohio, without which no modern Republican has won the White House.
Before Bush arrived in Miami, a small army of speakers -- including Mexican-born actress and singer Lucia Mendez -- who extolled him and attacked Kerry as the crowd swelled to a few thousand.
Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen pointed to elections in Afghanistan and plans for elections in Iraq and said that Bush was committed to "help bring about that same freedom, that same democracy ... to the oppressed and long-suffering people of Cuba."
10/31/2004 18:01 GMT - AFP