we would promote democracy and human rights and speak out forcefully. fidel castro is he aware of what happened? does he approve? i am not sure the i don t know what fidel castro s health status is. that s not anner eissue raised. it revolved around prisoner swap. sending back three cuban spies. cuba sending back an american agent after 20 years of prison there. separately in a humanitarian gesture, cuba released an american aide contractor, allen gross sentenced in 2009 to 15 years in prison for plotting to destroy the revolution. new photos of his departure. at a briefing he singled out the cuban people for praise. in no way are they responsible for the ordeal to which my family and i have been subjected. to me, cubanos or at least most of them, are incredibly kind,
u.s., allowed soviet missiles on the soil causing panic. u2 spy plane spotted built by the soviet union. the showdown of the united nations, u.s. demanded their removal. it will be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile, launch from cuba or against any nation in the western hemisphere as an attack. reporter: the soviet union blinked and the missiles were removed. almost two decades later in 1980, the cuban government allowed people to leave the country without a permit. nearly 125,000 cubans fled the island and arrived by boat 90 miles away in florida. at first, the u.s. welcomed the refugees but the sheer numbers overwhelmed facilities and stopped giving them acsyluasylu. boiled again around a 6-year-old boy named elian gonzalez rescued off the coast of florida with his family fleeing cuba.
just mentioned, we started the diplomatic relations process and we established major intersections in both havana an we had diplomats serves in the intersection of havana. i think that will continue no matter what happens. the normal diplomatic relations will continue and i hope congress goes ahead to remove the embargo and the sanctions because that doesn t hurt the castro brothers. it hurts the people of cuba who had to suffer because of our own imposed economic sanctions. i think this is a good move for both cubans and americans and a major step forward for more freedom and more democracy and respect for human rights in cuba as well. critics of this say, as you know, if it alleviates the economic pressure against the regime though, that, effect, helps the cuban people and does
are all the cubans that i know who are recently arrived or who are still in the island and are able to communicate with me. okay, more now on russian president vladimir putin s upcoming news conference. the co-author of the book called putin. thanks for being with us. do you think there will be any apologies coming from president putin to the russian people after he tanked the economy? why would putin have to apologize? because he s the guy who invaded crimea, he brought on the western sanctions that brought on economic misery. he probably didn t factor on the possibility that oil headed south and now revenues have collapsed, facing a deep recession next year and possibly even massive inflation. right. respectfully, can i change the narrative a little? sure. you re saying putin invaded
what have people been saying today? little surreal this morning. there have been celebrations. tears, a little surreal this morning when the news broke, andersen. still was over two hours until cubans heard about it. through the tightly controlled state media. wasn t until noon. castro took to the airwaves. in a speech to the nation. he talked about the respect he felt to president obama. towards, towards, the necessity of a better relationship moving forward. these are word that his brother, fidel castro never used. cubans were taken aback by that. taken aback by the prisoner swap. raul castro talking about 53 political prisoners released here. in cuba. at the request of the u.s. and a closer relationship moving forward.