i think we ve shown great strength. president trump isn t doing this for theater. he s going to solve a problem. what s most important is what s discussed and the clarity and the strength and resolve of this president, this administration. a major reason why they re having this meeting is because the economic sanctions had a very big impact on both their economy and ability to get pieces of material and other things they need for their weapons programs. joining me now is retired four star u.s. army general. general, good to see you. you heard the optimism from the president, mike pompaeo. do the share the optimism? no, not at all. we have two objectives. one is to try to prevent them from achieving an icbm capability to strike the united states and secondly we re trying to ensure that the human rights
comes to freedom of speech, to reporters being able to do their job, when it comes to people being imprisoned. how does all of that factor into his legacy? i think cuba is by now means, by anybody s standards, a human rights disaster zone. there are many human rights disaster zones around the continent. and the united states have been involved in many situations. in chile, nicaragua, el salvador, guatemala. to accuse cuba of being a human rights problem i think is missing the point completely. cuba is the only country in the world to have achieved its set-out millennium development. no child in cuba goes hungry. children are educate. are educated. people are educated. it s a fallacy to say there s no freedom of speech in cuba. the cubans have a different democratic system to yours or mine. it s difficult to understand. but it is their democratic system. it s one that they worked on. it s participatory. all cubans are highly educated and participate in the political
segues to where we are at this moment in america, it s about this human rights disaster in many ways that is just off the tip of queens in new york city. why did you want to be part of this film? i wanted to put a human face on the statistics and stories in the print press that were coming out about the culture of cruelty there. this was 15 to 16 months ago. and to raise the question, is this how, no matter what the offense is, we want to treat people? what does it say, all of the stories that have been told, powerful investigative reporting, what does it say about our society as a civilization and as a democracy and i don t appear in the film. we interviewed these men and women at length and they tell their story in their own voices. it s a place of great cruelty institutionally.
violence rules, predator, that never changes. i m in a situation where i can t run from. but my whole time in the streets, that s all i ve ever been doing is fighting so i m looking like i m in a place where i always trained for but didn t know it. the sad part is, the alternative to violence is more violence. the documentary is called rikers. veteran journalist bill moyers, it s my great pleasure to welcome you here now. good to be with you. i want to start with the film which in many ways i think segues to where we are at this moment in america, it s about this human rights disaster in many ways that is just off the tip of queens in new york city. why did you want to be part of this film? i wanted to put a human face
members at various levels. when we call it a cartel like it s a company, it s more like a network, a federation of different traffickers. you have people growing drugs people processing drugs, people smuggling into the united states people sending them all around the place. whether he s there or not, that network is still working. and him being out or in won t have a direct impact on the amount of drugs flowing through, but it will have an impact in the drug politics of mexico and the fighting and the violence going on throughout the streets and lives being destroyed. on one side, you have people taking drugs in the united states in mexico, we re talking about a human rights disaster. more than 82,000 people killed since 2007. such an important point, really wreaking havoc on both sides of the border. thank you. and we are switching gears now to another top story.