| That didn't take long ... |
The State Department has rejected Cuban leader Raul Castro's offer to exchange five convicted Cuban spies in U.S. prisons for dissidents jailed in Cuba, Agence Frence-Presse is reporting. Castro made the proposal earlier today during his visit to Brazil.
"The issue of political prisoners held against their will, merely for making peaceful protests, is independent of the case of the five spies tried and convicted under due process of the U.S. judicial system," deputy spokesman Robert Wood told AFP. "We have long called on the government of Cuba to release political prisoners and recommend that it do so immediately."
The five were convicted in 2001 in Miami of spying on Cuban exiles. They are considered heroes in Cuba. Three were sentenced to life and the other two to 15 and 19 years. In June a U.S. appeals court upheld the convictions but said the three life sentences should be reconsidered.
The U.S. government believes Cuba has imprisoned more than 200 dissidents. |