Castro offers dissident exchange for 'Cuban 5' Five have been imprisoned in the U.S. since 2001 esp

Castro offers dissident exchange for 'Cuban 5'
Five have been imprisoned in the U.S. since 2001 espionage convictions
updated 2 hours, 5 minutes ago

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 since taking over as president, also reiterated Cuba's willingness to discuss the U.S. embargo with incoming President Barack Obama.

Answering a reporter's question about political prisoners in Cuba, Castro said: "We will send those prisoners you talk about (to the United States) with their families. But give us back our five heroes."

He 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.

~snip~
The five, arrested in 1998, acknowledged being Cuban agents but said they were not spying on the United States. They said their focus was on U.S.-based exile groups planning "terrorist" actions against the Castro government.

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28300783

If the dissidents jailed in Cuba were to take their freedom in the US in exchange for the five Cuban government agents, what would they lose? If they were to take such a deal, they would give credence to the Havana government's efforts to portray themselves and their fellow dissenters as 'mercenaries' in the pay of a foreign government. I expect those dissidents are ALSO Cuban patriots, as opposed to seeing their country bullied about by their neighbors as the powers-that-be that currently rule Cuba.

I shouldn't be too surprised to see one or two of the more cussed-minded dissidents to choose to remain in prison under such circumstances.