Scuke Cuba News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

The kpeem health care and education, but certainly not political freedom. there's none of that down there yet. and i think that time is coming. i think we can all hope that in the next five or ten years there's doing to be a dimini diminishing effort to deny people their democratic rights down there. all americans believe that cuba could be a diplomatic country. it could well remain as a socialist country but all would like to see it as a democratic socialist country. >> you think of castro, that he was a hated man, one of the cold war leaders that we have. what do you think castro's legacy is...

Freedoms that chris was just referring to. i've interviewed castros over the years, first met him in 1999 when i went down there over the controversy of elian gonzalez. and there were demonstrations from the streets and we started a long series of conversations which led to a numb were of interviews and a long documentary that we did for msnbc back in 2002. but i've traveled down there when jimmy carter went in 2002 on a human rights mission and also, you know, of course more recently under raul castro when president obama went for the first visit of a u.s. president to cuba since the communis...

There is still a lot to celebrate for cubans in the health care, the educational reforms that he brought to the country. the social services in cuba were not to be denied, even though once the special relationship with the former soviet union passed, he suffered tremendous -- and his people suffered tremendous because they no longer had the subsidiesubsi >> he's going to be remember ased ed as one of the last cold war leaders. what was the impetus for him to actually change his leadership and the ability to bring cuba from where it was when he took control in the 1959 basically to where it is ...

As well for the younger generation, even though his time had certainly passed by the time -- in his frailty by time he had died. >> well, we do know that his passing, he is 90 years old and he's passed his power on to his brother. so he's in effect not been a leader in cuba. however the cuban people, what can you predict their reaction is going to be now that fidel has passed? >> i think it will depend on the generation, certainly. the loyal followers of the revolution, and there are many, and certainly the followers of fidel castro will mourn his passing and will mourn the passing of an era. ...

The attempt to isolate him never worked. he could always say it was the sanctions against him that caused the failure of cuba to develop economically. and i think they're all going to be removed thanks to president obama. president obama has been the innovator in our relationship with castro. clearly he wants to move to very normal relations, diplomatically and socially as well. clearly in his administration obama would like to end the isolation of cuba completely. but the communist government down there in cuba does not believe in free elections. there's a real difference. they're not a free ...