Yoani Sanchez - “I am not expecting that Obama is going to demand our rights”

Yoani Sanchez: "I am not expecting that Obama is going to demand our
rights" / 14ymedio
Posted on April 23, 2015

(EFE) Santiago de Chile, 22 April 2015 – Yoani Sanchez said on Wednesday
that the normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States
gives new hope to the inhabitants of the Island, but stressed that
Cubans themselves must exert pressure to demand their rights.

"I am not expecting [US president, Barack] Obama, from the White House,
is going to demand our rights, it is up to us," said the regime opponent
and journalist at a press conference in Santiago de Cuba, where she had
arrived for a three-day visit.

On the normalization of relations between the two countries, the blogger
felt that the United States has made several concessions so far, but the
Government of president Raul Castro has been hiding his cards.

"The issue of human rights and freedoms, such as of the press, has been
knocking on a closed door, but we don't know if the Cuban government is
going to cede anything," she said.

Beyond the scope of the negotiations, Sanchez said that it is a
beneficial process because it gives hope and externalizes the "conflict
between the Cuban people and the Cuban government," which, in her
opinion, is the real conflict on the island.

"I would like for this process of negotiation to also bring acceptance
on the part of the Cuban government of a multiparty system, of the legal
existence of independent media, and a commitment not to violate human
rights," the journalist said. She predicted, however, that the regime
will cling forcefully to the "absolute control" that it exercises.

On being asked for the reasons of the rapprochement between Cuba and the
United States, the regime opponent said that Venezuela's economic and
social crisis is a "determining" factor, due to the economic assistance
it provides to the Castro regime.

Sanchez also welcomed the announcement of the trip Pope Francis plans to
make to Cuba this coming September, before visiting the United States,
and expressed her desire for the Pope to promote "the end of political
imprisonment."

Source: Yoani Sanchez: "I am not expecting that Obama is going to demand
our rights" / 14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/yoani-sanchez-i-am-not-expecting-that-obama-is-going/