Transcripts for CNN The Lead With Jake Tapper 20141217 21:19:45 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
only news network correspondent reporting live from cuba now. he s with us from havana. patrick. what s been the reaction on the streets there? reporter: mostly a reaction of joy. it was somewhat surreal, jake. we knew early this morning once the announcement came out in washington that this monumental change was going to take place, but here in cuba where the government controls all media, basically, it was until noon raul castro took to the airwaves in a rather unusual announcement that people talked about the respect he feels toward president obama, thanking president obama and pope francis for working to ink this deal. it wasn t understand then when we saw cubans celebrating. dissidents that feel their concerns will now be overlooked, but by any large most people here whether they support the government or don t just want to have a closer relationship with the u.s. and their family. at noon when the announcement was being played they heard church bells ring all over
havana. for many people this was a historic day and if not the end of the u.s. embargo, certainly the beginning of the end, jake. patrick, thank you so much. cnn correspondent, alina machado is in little havana, a neighborhood in miami. she s live, as well. were people outraged by today s announcement? what are folks there saying? reporter: we ve heard a little bit of everything here. we ve been here all day and to give you a sense of where we are, we are in front of versailles cafe where cubans traditionally gather every time there s something that goes on with cuba. you see those police cars right there. they re here and directing traffic because people are slowing down looking at the crowd that has gathered here. walk with me over here. you can see there s an american flag and there are people holding the cuban flag and there is a protester over there holding a sign that says fire
to pass to the captain. then i ordered people to stay calm and asked people to stay calm and asked the stewardess to give everybody free drinks compliments of the revolution. potts then directed the plane to go to cuba where he has been ever since then. at the time, black panther, potts hoped to receive military training to ultimately overthrow the u.s. government. that wads his plan. instead, cuban authorities tried, convicted, and imprisoned him for 13 years. and now he s hoping that prison time in cuba will play into his favor as he faces charges here in the united states. let me go straight to patrick ottoman on that plane with william potts when he arrived in the u.s. for the first time in 29 years. patrick, why did he want to come here? you know, he misses family, broork. he s tired of life in cuba. it s been 30 years. most of that time he spent in cuban prison. some of the worst prisons in
last time, william potts was on a plane to miami, this was in 1984, but it was a different plane because he was hijacking it. the flight with 57 passengers onboard, and with a gun in his hand, potts told the pilot, his name was lieutenant spart ks, and demanded this plane go to cuba. well, at the time, he was a member of the black panthers. potts hoped to learn military skills, he says, to overthrow the u.s. government. that was his plan then. today, he s in u.s. custody after being in cuba for the last 29 years. and he s the one who arranged his capture. cnn s patrick ottoman was the only reporter on that plane this morning from cuba along with potts. patrick, two of his daughters live in georgia. i m thinking perhaps this is part of the reason why he said okay, i m going to hop on a plane and come home. that s really the main reason, brooke. he obviously feels remorse. he wants to clear his legal