castro, but what human rights watch says and this is the most recent report, is the cuban government continues the repress, dissent and discourage public criticism. it now relies less on long-term prison sentences to punish i think citizens but short-term arres arrests. other repressive tactics, employed, by the government include beatings, public acts of shaming and the termination of employment. we were talking about this before, how if anybody dares say anything that might be perceived not threatening but unfriendly to the government, they may lose whatever benefits they can get under the government. a previous guest was talking about the fact that cuba sends its doctors to all four corners of the world. my question is at what cost? if you re a doctor in cuba, you re essentially a slave and
miami specifically, who are not happy with the fact that relations have improved. but i must emphasize to you that miami is a very distorted lens. this is a small group, people who obviously left cuba with all due respect, i have to push back if you use miami to judge cuba, of course you re going to get a negative i do have to gently push back against the idea it is a small group because, again, when we see the live images in miami you do see many, many people on the streets who have a different take. it is important also to bring in your take as well. i want to ask you, sir, as we see this happening in miami, as we see people starting to get the news in cuba, what are your thoughts moving forward now that a new u.s. president will be coming in and will be dealing with raoul castro without the shadow of fidel castro? well, i think it is very important to carry on the policy of engagement that president obama has started. i think that s a very wise
translator: the cube people are feeling saturday box of the loss of our commander in chief fidel castro we wish him wherever he is that he s blessed. us cubans love him. then, when i first came to cuba, a lot of people would not even say the name fidel castro if you engaged them in the street. they stroked their face. that is kind of how they talked about them. in the past years people have opened up but you will not hear criticism or celebrating like we saw in miami. there s still a fear of what would happen if you openly criticized him or his brother. but certainly, as the sun rises over cuba, without fidel castro, there s a lot of expectation, a lot of hope. perhaps fear of what the future brings and the cuban government, as you said, has declared nine days of mourning. this is a historic leader of the
that speaks to the lack of freedom, and also the lack of economic freedom that these people had before the castro regime. they want to see economic freedom grow in that country, as well as having the freedom to speak their minds and criticize the government on that island, something they have not been able to do for many, many decades. chris, we understand that your wife is cuban-american that you traveled with her in a return of what must have been an very emotional one to cuba earlier this year? it absolutely was, i traveled with three generations of her family, including an 84-year-old grandmother who had not returned in 50 years. she returned to a country that she barely recognized. it was a mixture of joy to be able to see her friends. people that she hadn t spoke to in so many decades but heartbreak to see how much the country has changed. she really didn t recognize it as it was when she was young. she and her children were able
1990s. but what happened was there was this period that cuba calls a special period in which cubans were asked to ration their food, to minimize their consumption, and this incomes huge ow chavez of venezuela with all of the oil in the world, a lot of money to give and essentially the cuban system was rescued by venezuela. so it gave oxygen to the cuban regime for another 10, 15 years, and the reason they re still there is one big factor was that hugo chavez was in power. the reality is that change happens very, very slowly in cuba because that was precisely fidel castro s decision from the very beginning of the revolution. we are talking about an historic moment, the death of fidel castro. while we re talking about it and if our director is able to bring