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Pro-Democracy Group Holds Vigil To Rally Against Obama-Castro Pact

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- A pro-democracy group held a vigil for freedom Thursday evening in protest of what they call the 'Obama-Castro Pact.'

All this as a U.S. delegation was in their second day of talks with Cuban officials in Havana  in an attempt to normalize relations between both nations.

READ: US-Cuba Talks Underway For Second Day

The group, Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, held a vigil for freedom at the Cuban Memorial, in Tamiami Park located at 11201 SW 24 Street.

"We wanted to be here today to pay homage to the thousands and thousands of martyrs and victims that have given the lives for freedom or that have died in the pursuit of freedom," said  Mothers and Women Against Repression President Sylvia Iriondo.

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The group is asking for the human rights of the Cuban people to be regarded and respected, not negotiated in, what the group says, is a unilateral concession to the Castro regime.

"Everything that's happening right now is only going to benefit the Cuban government," said Claudia De La Vega, who attended the vigil.  "It's never going to trickle down to the people.  It's never going to trickle down till they have what we have here, a multiparty system, where we have free elections.

READ: U.S. Cubans Split Over Change In U.S. Policy

Organizers at the vigil stressed the change in policy between the U.S. and Cuba is a far cry from what they've hoped and prayed for for decades.

"If there is a nation that understands freedom, it's the United States of America and that is what we want for our homeland.  That's what we want for the Cuban people," said Iriondo.

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