Ask these people...“I think human rights issues should not be politicized,” said Castro, who criticized the U.S. over such issues as education, race relations and equal pay. “Do you think there is any more sacred right than the right to health?”
Castro, at a joint news conference broadcast live on state television, called the American embargo “the most important obstacle” to his country’s economic development.
He also pressed Obama to return the Guantanamo Bay military base and detention center, which is on Cuban territory, to the Havana government.
[...]
“America believes in democracy,” Obama added. “We believe that freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion are . . . universal values.”
Obama made no concession on Guantanamo. Castro, meanwhile, played dumb on political prisoners when asked about the issue.
“What political prisoners?” Castro said. “Give me their names.”
Castro promised to release prisoners “today” if he were presented with a list of names.
NY Daily News
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.Just hours before President Obama landed Sunday in Cuba for his historic visit to the communist island, Cuban authorities arrested more than 50 dissidents who were marching to demand improved human rights.
Members of the group, known as the Ladies in White, are used to the routine. They march each Sunday after Mass at a church in a suburb of Havana called Miramar and usually get arrested and detained for hours or days.
[...]
"For us, it's very important that we do this so President Obama knows that there are women here fighting for the liberty of political prisoners," Soler said before being arrested. "And he needs to know that we are here being repressed simply for exercising our right to express ourselves and manifest in a non-violent way."
USA Today
No comments:
Post a Comment