Cuban President Raúl Castro sparred with US reporters on Monday over Cuba’s human-rights record, saying at one point that it was not fair to ask about prisoners in general and at another point that he would release by the end of the day anyone named as a political prisoner by a reporter. Obama said the second thing is the issue of human rights.
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During the visit, President Obama will appear with Cuba’s president, Raul Castro, at a state dinner and a press conference on trade.
Mr Obama came to Cuba pledging to press its leaders on human rights and political freedoms, and vowing that the mere fact of a visit by an American leader would promote those values on the island.
“Give me list right now of the political prisoners’ names to set them free”, Castro said originally in Spanish, in response to a CNN reporter’s question. But Obama is under pressure from critics at home to push Castro’s Communist government to allow political dissent and further open its Soviet-style economy. He says he’s working to ease the path for joint corporate ventures and hiring more Cubans in the US. “None”, said Castro, adding that some countries comply with some human and civil rights and ignore others, but noted Cuba has followed with 47 of the 61 recognized human rights instruments.
The White House has all but ruled out a high-profile meeting between Obama and 89-year-old Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Since the Cuban president and Obama spoke in an extended phone conversation in December 2014, Havana and Washington have restored diplomatic ties, signed telecommunications deals, and agreed to scheduled airline services.
Castro did not greet Obama at the airport Sunday, sending his foreign minister instead, and a heavy police presence has ensured that Cubans have no chance of gathering spontaneously at any of Obama’s appearances around the city.
Earlier in the day, Obama laid a wreath at the Jose Marti Memorial, which is dedicated to a Cuban revolutionary hero.
In discussing the looming trade embargo, Obama expressed certainty that the USA would eliminate it. “What we did for 50 years did not serve our interests or the interests of the Cuban people”, he said of the controversial embargo, which can only be lifted by Congress.
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In a history-making meeting in Havana, Castro praised Obama’s recent steps to relax controls on Cuba as “positive”, but deemed them insufficient. Please sir, why do you have Cuban political prisoners?
