A CNN correspondent challenged Cuban President Raul Castro over the issue of political prisoners during a joint press conference with President Barack Obama.
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U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor personally thanked President Obama for his moves on Cuba and said Tampa Bay is an eager partner as the country undergoes economic and human rights changes.
“Give me a list of political prisoners and I will release them immediately”, Castro said. The Cuban leader went on to tell reporters they were asking him too many questions and that the questions should be directed at President Obama. Castro, who rarely takes questions from the media, fielded several from American and Cuban journalists, denying knowledge of any political prisoners.
Obama’s visit is being closely watched in the United States, where public opinion has shifted in support of normalized relations with Cuba.
As Mr Castro and Mr Obama stood shoulder to shoulder before their talks, a military band played the Cuban anthem and then the USA anthem. If we build on the work we’re doing in agriculture and you start seeing more USA farmers interacting with Cuban farmers and there’s more exports and imports, that builds a constituency. “Cuba is changing and it’s important the US recognizes that it’s changing”. “The weekend the president is now there in Cuba they arrested over 50 individuals who are dissidents of the Cuban government”.
When one final question was put to him, a cantankerous Castro rounded again on the criticism of Cuba’s record on human rights and ended the press conference abruptly with: “I think this is enough”.
(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell). Government supporters stage a counter-protest to one held by Ladies in White, a dissident women’s group that calls for the release of political prisoners, near the dissident group’s weekly protest in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, … So the response from the president was very good, very appropriate: “‘Show me the list, ‘” said Oscar Rodriguez, 81.
Marti was a 19th century poet and writer whose activism helped spur Cuba’s freedom from Spain and whose legacy was later adopted by Fidel Castro’s revolutionaries as a symbol of anti-imperialism.
Typically, Obama’s press conferences with foreign leaders include questions from two members of the American press and two members of the foreign press. Still, many Republicans – including some hoping to succeed Obama as president – have vowed to roll back the diplomatic opening if elected.
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Obama also revealed he plans to announce while visiting here that Google has made arrangements to upgrade Internet access on the island.
