US Refuses Cuban Offer To Trade Spies For Jailed Dissidents
"The issue of political prisoners held against their will, merely for making peaceful protests, is independent of the case of the five spies tried and convicted under due process of the U.S. judicial system," U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood told AFP.
"We have long called on the government of Cuba to release political prisoners and recommend that it do so immediately," Wood said.
The spokesman refused to comment further, but his remarks did not shut the door on an eventual release of the five Cubans by the incoming administration of Barack Obama, who assumes the presidency on Jan. 20.
During a press conference Thursday in Brasilia, Cuban President Raul Castro proposed the exchange while saying that improved ties with the United States would not happen only through "unilateral gestures."
Then responding to a question about Cuban political dissidents, Castro said: "Those prisoners that you talk about -- they (the United States) want them released? Let them tell us, we'll send them over there with families and all. Let them return our five heroes. It is gesture from both sides."
The five Cubans were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage against the United States in Miami in 2001, and sentenced to long prison terms.
The men argued that they were monitoring Florida-based anti-Castro groups to prevent terrorist attacks on Cuba, and that their work was not directed against the U.S. government.
Castro also said that Cuban officials were prepared to speak with Obama, "wherever and whenever he decides...in conditions of absolute equality."
-Dow Jones Newswires, 201-938-5500
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Publié le 18 Décembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones
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