Page 3 - Inside Cuba News Today

Julie pace. >> reporter: thank you, mr. president. i want to ask you about cuba. what would you say to dissidents or democracy advocates inside cuba who worry that can give the castro regime -- when your administration was lifting sanctions on myanmar, why not do the same with cuba? to follow up on north korea, did you have any indication north korea was acting in conjunction with another country, perhaps, china? >> we have no indication that north korea was acting in conjunction with another co...

The grand halls of the world and major war leaders dont go to havana because everyone recognizes he is as the president said, a dictator. repressive regime. makes sense to get rid of an embargo that doesnt work. it was very interesting. the president started by invoking the cuban people rather than the cuban government. i think that was the key point. its not the regime. its people to people relations. hes hoping that just by allowing that to happen, the u.s. will have greater leverage, greater ...

They want to do to block money on a new embassy? >> leslie, i think im going to cut you off here. this is taking up a lot of time. all right. so with respect to sabotage, my understanding of the history of the plane being shot down, its not clear that was the cuban government purposely trying to undermine overtures by the clinton administration. it was a tragic circumstance that ended up collapsing talks that had begun to take place. i havent seen an historical record that suggests they shot the...

Tradition. julie pace? >> reporter: thank you, mr. president. i wanted to ask about cuba. what would you say to dissidents or democracy advocates inside cuba who say policy changes could give castro regime benefits without addressing the human rights or political system. when you lifted sanctions on miramar, you sought reform. if i could follow up on north korea, do you have any indication that north korea was working in conjunction with another country, perhaps china? >> we have no indication t...

Place. i share the concerns of dissidents there and human rights activists that this is still a regime that represses it people. as i said when i make the announcement, i dont anticipate overnight changes. what i know deep in my bones is that you have done the same thing for 50 years and nothing has changed, you should try something different if you want a different outcome. and this gives us an opportunity for a different outcome. suddenly cuba is open to the world in ways it has not been opene...

Marco rubio and a lot of people in the states and a lot of people in the cuban community like he does. others dont. but in latin america, it was seen as an obstacle, as something that didnt make sense. president obama mentioned how the u.s. has full diplomatic relations with china, a communist country, with egypt, who we fought a war with, and we didnt have that relationship with cuba. so this will obviously make a change. now, the u.s. has a very tense relationship with venezuela. venezuela and...

W.a.s.p. network of spies here in the u.s. this intelligence asset released today as part of this exchange for the cubans that were released and sent back to cuba, actually a cuban national but one who was working for and providing critical intelligence to the u.s. intelligence agencies, now free after 20 years in a cuban prison and just one final line from this statement. it says, in light of his sacrifice on behalf of the united states, securing his release from prison after 20 years is a fitt...

And through these exchanges, a younger generation of cuban americans has increasingly questioned an approach that does more to keep cuba closed off from an interconnected world. while ive been prepared to take additional steps for some time, a major obstacle stood in our way. the wrongful imprisonment in cuba of a u.s. citizen and usaid subcontractor, alan gross, for five years. over many months, my administration has held discussions with the cuban government about alans case and other aspects ...

Come back here and provide health care in underserved communities. we met with every is of them. we had dinner with them saturday night. so this is something the u.s. population needs to understand and know about. i understand my colleagues who are cuban have a very reason for their beliefs. 50 years is long enough. >> some that have that opinion, it really is a relic of the cold war. and the american public has moved on this. a poll of normalizing relations with cuba shows 56% of americans favo...

Decades to realize that we should have a normal relationship with communist china. we have absolutely no use for the chinese communist leadership but when president nixon went to china, he did the right thing in gradually opening up china and having a normal relationship, reducing the likelihood of conflict and that kind of a problem that really needs to be ended. the cold war is over. we dont like cuban leadership. we dont like the leadership in a whole bunch of countries that we have normal re...