Bernd De Boosman
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Cuba's leadership has condemned the U.S. indictment as a political maneuver devoid of any legal foundation. Our North America correspondent Bernd De Boosman spoke to us from Washington. The indictment itself is symbolically extremely important here in the United States. There are many Cuban exiles and Cuban Americans, particularly in South Florida, that feel extremely strongly about the Castro family, both Raul and his late brother Fidel.
For them it's very important that there at least be this suggestion that he could be brought to justice. Now whether he actually faces these charges is a different question entirely. Of course the U.S. could go in and seize him, and just this afternoon Senator Rick Scott made the suggestion that they do so, as they did with NicolĂĄs Maduro in Venezuela in January. But of course that has humanitarian implications, launching a
Ja mitÀ puolustusprosentti sanoi, ettÀ ei ole yksilöitÀ?
He did say there won't be an escalation, but then in a subsequent statement from the White House, the president vowed that the U.S. wouldn't tolerate what the White House described as a rogue state just 90 miles from American shores. There's very much been essentially a maximum pressure campaign on the island, which is seen, for example...
Yhdysvallat vahvistavat tarifteja puolustajille, jotka sijoittavat tuotetta Kuubaan. TÀmÀ on johtunut suuriin energia- ja tuotantosuhteisiin, joita olemme nÀhneet, jotka ovat olleet suurin piirtein monimuotoisia vuosina.
Why is this maximum pressure campaign happening now? Why place so much pressure on Cuba? Well, for one, President Trump, with the exception of Iran, he's very much refocused US foreign policy on Latin America. We saw earlier in this administration the beginning of strikes on drug boats coming through the Caribbean, for example. We've seen military strikes in Ecuador. We've seen indictments against Cuba.
Juontaja Erja HyytiÀinen
been in favor of President Trump. But over the last year and a half, we saw those numbers start to slip, the rather harsh immigration policies, which didn't spare newly arrived Cubans from detention centers, for example, or from having their political asylum blocked. That was raising quite a lot of concern among Cuban Americans in Florida and in other places. And I think this move will be very popular among them, which benefits the White House and Republican candidates more broadly.
What strategic importance does Cuba have for the United States? For one, I think its main strategic importance to the United States is that it's very close to its shores. The distance between Cuba and Key West, the southernmost point of the United States, is just 90 miles. And that's something that has raised alarm for decades since the communist revolution took Cuba in 1959.
People will remember the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, for example, in which Russian missiles were based in Cuba, almost prompting what very well could have escalated into a nuclear war. And we're seeing kind of a continuation of that. Just this week, Defense Secretary Pete Hexeth raised concern that Russia and China could have intelligence-gathering functions in Cuba oriented to the United States, and that's not something that this White House...
Bern De Boosman, speaking to us from Washington.
At the moment, there's still several thousand people, mostly reporters and their guests, still locked in the ballroom of the Washington Hilton.
Just a few minutes ago, the president of the White House Correspondents Association, Weijia Jiang of ZBS, went to the podium and informed us that the event will be continuing in a short time.
She didn't say what happened, and we still have no official confirmation of what
took place.
But from where the BBC was sitting, there was perhaps four or five what sounded like gunshots.
The FBI director, Kash Patel, was sitting just behind me, kind of almost back to back.
He was quickly rushed out of the venue by a
an agent, and then President Trump was rushed off stage where he was sitting with members of the White House Correspondents Association.
About three or four Secret Service agents with long rifles quickly got on stage and rushed him off the stage.