Cuba Dissident: After U.S. Renewed Ties, Cuban Gov’t ‘Feels More Free to Oppress Us’
RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
TAPPER: "Let me show you one thing we have that is interesting. The U.S. Embassy that was the U.S. Intersection, they used to have a news ticker and then the Cuban government retaliated by putting up dozens and dozens of flags and they would block the view so people could not read the ticker, so the intersection and Cuban government came up with an agreement, that the flags would come down if the ticker came down. Let's talk more. The two countries here that have spent the last half centuries as arch enemies took a major step in normalizing relations, and amidst all the pop and circumstance, there are many dissidence here on the island that believe their day-to-day lives are filled with economic hardship and oppression and human rights abuses, that that's not going to change.
"Not everybody here is celebrating. Antonio is part of the pro-democracy dissidence community, and brave and vocal critic on the island that dares to criticize the Castro government. He has hosted the dissidence community at his family home."
RODILES: "We want to talk about it."
TAPPER: "Their campaign has come at a significant cost. They are routinely rounded up and arrested as they make their way to mass at the local church. And the women there dressed in white bear silent witnesses. Does the government retaliate against you?"
RODILES: "Yes, they used to organize like a kind of police operation around the house to arrest the people that were -- they were coming here."
TAPPER: "Just for what? For coming?"
RODILES: "Exactly. They don't want that kind of activities."
TAPPER: "Have they arrested you and physically hurt you?"
RODILES: "Yes, I have been arrested several times, and also I have been beaten and in jail for days, and in the last time the situation has been changing for worse."
TAPPER: "It's getting worse?"
RODILES: "Yes."
TAPPER: "This is what happened in July when he was arrested on his way to church, put in the back of a police car and beaten with handcuffs."
TAPPER: "President Obama and secretary Kerry, they argue, look, we have tried it with an embargo and blockade for decades and nothing has changed and maybe by doing this, there will be more human rights and democracy in Cuba. Do you agree with that?"
RODILES: "I do not agree. We really are upset because the American government doesn't want to put any condition for that political process, and the Cuban government is taking a lot and they are not giving anything."
TAPPER: "As the American flag rose over the U.S. Embassy in huh van wrau today, there were no dissidents there, and instead he was invited to a private ceremony with the secretary of state in the afternoon, but he declined their invitation. Do you think Obama and Kerry doing this hurt the cause of people like you, people fighting for freedom."
RODILES: "They feel more free to oppress us, and at the same time the signal for the people fighting the government, making a huge confusion, because right now people don't understand who are their friends that are supporting the changes for the democracy, and who are the people supporting the government."
