Former U

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, the first high-ranking U.S. political figure to visit Castro's Cuba, delivered a 20-minute speech in Spanish at the University of Havana before Cuban President Fidel Castro and members of the Cuban government.
Carter urged the administration to let the Red Cross and the U.N. Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) visit the island's prisons and prisoners to refute "unjustified criticism" against the Caribbean country.
Regarding human rights, Carter said the United States is not blameless, citing the large prison population in his country and stressing that "there is little doubt the death penalty is more rigorously imposed on poor people, blacks and the mentally ill."