McCain: "We should give hope to the Cuban people, not to the Castro regime"

John McCain will deliver a speech today in Miami, to mark Cuban Independence Day. According to the McCain campaign he is expected to say the US should side with the Cuban people, not the Castro regime. And he will take advantage of Brack Obama's pledge to open ties with the Castro regime.

For the last few days, John McCain has slammed Barack Obama for diplomatic overtures to Iran's president -- and Obama has responded in kind, tying McCain to the unpopular war in Iraq.

Today, the presumptive Republican nominee hits the Democratic front-runner for wanting to talk to Raul Castro of Cuba.

In a speech scheduled this morning in Florida to mark Cuba's Independence Day, McCain says Obama is also misguided for wanting to ease the US trade embargo.

"These steps would send the worst possible signal to Cuba’s dictators -- there is no need to undertake fundamental reforms, they can simply wait for a unilateral change in US policy," McCain says in prepared remarks released by his campaign.

"I believe we should give hope to the Cuban people, not to the Castro regime. My administration will press the Cuban regime to release all political prisoners unconditionally, to legalize all political parties, labor unions, and free media, and to schedule internationally monitored elections."

McCain also dismisses the "reforms" put in place by Raul Castro, who took power with the ill health of his brother Fidel, the longtime leader of Cuba.

"Such characterizations must sound quite cynical to the political prisoners that fill Cuban jails, to the millions who suffer under poverty and repression, and to all those who wish to choose their leaders, not suffer under them," McCain says in the prepared remarks. "The Castro regime enforces strict limits against freedom of expression, of association, of assembly, of movement, of speech."