BRASILIA, Brazil — Cuban President Raul Castro made an unprecedented offer Thursday to exchange political dissidents jailed in his country for five Cubans imprisoned in the U.S. for espionage.
Castro, on his first official visit to Brazil, also reiterated Cuba’s willingness to discuss the United States’ 46-year-old economic embargo with President-elect Barack Obama.
Answering a reporter’s question about political prisoners in Cuba, Castro said he would consider releasing some as a gesture to opening talks with the new administration.
But he said the U.S. would need to reciprocate.
“Let’s make a gesture for a gesture,” said Castro, who took over in February from his ailing brother, Fidel. “We will send those prisoners you talk about (to the United States) with their families. But give us back our five heroes.”
The Cuban president referred to the so-called Cuban Five, who were convicted in 2001 on espionage charges and are lionized in Cuba as heroes. Cuban exile groups in the U.S. say they were justly punished.
President George W. Bush has taken a hard line against Cuba and would not consider such a trade. State Department spokeswoman Heidi Bronke said the dissidents jailed in Cuba should be released immediately without conditions.
Obama has never discussed releasing prisoners and has said he will keep the embargo as leverage until Cuba shows “significant steps toward democracy,” starting with freedom for approximately 219 jailed political dissidents.
But he has shown more openness toward the communist island.
Obama promised during the campaign that immediately after taking office Jan. 20, he will lift all restrictions on family travel and cash remittances to Cuba — not just roll them back to previous rules that were tightened by the Bush administration.
