Former Polish President and Nobel Peace Laureate Lech Walesa receives key to the City of Miami 

Former Polish President and Nobel Peace Laureate Lech Walesa received a key to the city of Miami on Wednesday while visiting Mayor Francis Suarez and leaders of the Cuban exile community. 

Walesa was welcomed at Miami’s City Hall, where Mayor Suarez praised the former president for his role in fighting against communism and bringing about democracy in his country. 

“President Walesa saw firsthand, and related to me upstairs, the toxicity of communism, which promises to make everyone the same but only succeeds in making everyone equally miserable,” said Suarez during a press conference.

Walesa was a leading figure who helped lead the fall of communism in eastern Europe in the 1980s and went on to become the first democratically elected president of Poland since 1920. 

For a long time, the former Polish president has criticized the regime in Cuba and has called for a change to democracy. 

"I have always thought that I will join you in the triumphal march in Havana when Cuba is liberated from communism. Please do all you can so that I can come to Havana with you when Cuba is free,” Walesa added.

During his visit to Miami, Walesa visited the Brigade 2506 Museum and Library in Little Havana, where he “encouraged Cubans to look for new tactics in the fight against the communist government,” reported The Miami Herald. 

“I didn’t expect to be in a setting where I was expected to wear a suit,” he said, wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt that said “Constitution” in Polish. “So please don’t be offended by the way I am dressed today, but I will put on a suit when Cuba is free.”

"I am almost 80 years old, hurry up," said Walesa, who will turn 79 on the 29th of this month.