During an interview with ABC on Monday, President Obama stated that the US has given Cuba a list of political prisoners “in the past,” but declined to say he had done so during this visit in response to Raúl Castro’s declaration that he would release political prisoners if he was given a list of them.
Obama was asked by “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir if he would give Cuba’s President Raúl Castro a list of political prisoners in response to Castro saying, “Give me a name, or names, or after this meeting is over you can give me a list of political prisoners and if we have those political prisoners they will be released before tonight ends.”
Obama responded, “Well, the truth of the matter is, we’ve given them lists in the past, and they have responded intermittently to our engagement. And this, I think, is an example of why it was my belief that this would be a more successful mechanism for us to advance the values that we care about than an embargo, and silence, and no communications.”
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