MIAMI — Cuba didn’t want to change the way things were — the United States convinced them to, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said here Friday.
Normalization wasn’t even on the minds of Cuban officials as Rhodes in 2013 began the secret talks that led to the release of American prisoner Alan Gross, he said, arguing that the Castro government felt like it benefited from the isolation and opposition to the United States.
Rhodes came here on a trip to the heart of the Cuban ex-pat community, meeting with students, religious leaders and human rights advocates to discuss plans and their concerns ahead of President Barack Obama’s scheduled landing in Havana next Sunday, March 20.
In contrast with the Cubans, Rhodes said, he went into the talks with instructions from the president “to see how far we could go.”
Read more here