U.S. President Barack Obama will reportedly visit Cuba next month, according to multiple diplomatic sources.
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Last summer, Cuba reopened its embassy in Washington and Secretary of State John Kerry traveled to Havana to raise the American flag over the USA embassy there for the first time in 54 years.
President Obama will travel to Cuba in March, becoming the first sitting US president to set foot on the island nation in almost 90 years.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, whose father was born in Cuba and was granted political asylum in the United States, said he was “saddened” by the news and vowed never to visit the country “as long as Castro is in power”.
On Tuesday, the two nations signed a deal restoring commercial air traffic for the first time in five decades.
Calvin Coolidge, who had traveled to Havana in 1928, was the last sitting U.S. president to visit the Cuban capital.
The president said in December that he would like to visit Cuba before the end of his term but that the visit depended on more progress in his priorities for Cuba, such as a bigger role for private enterprise, improvement in Cuba’s human rights record and more access to information and the Internet for Cubans.
President Barack Obama is expected to visit Cuba in the coming weeks – in what is regarded as a crucial step for thawing relations between the former Cold War foes.
Obama has come under fire from 2016 presidential hopefuls from the Republican party for his efforts to improve ties with Cuba.
But the White House did not explicitly repeat that pledge as it promoted the March 21-22 trip on Twitter, in emails to reporters, and via Medium, a favorite site of politicians seeking to post press releases.
“We haven’t benefitted anything in the supposed give-and-take that’s happened between the USA and the Cuban government since the beginning of the opening of relationships a year ago”, Verseilles patron Frank Cantero told Local 10 News.
News of the trip was first reported by ABC News.
White House officials said the trip is meant to build on the progress made in normalizing relations between both countries and advancing commercial and people to people ties.
Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter visited Cuba twice in 2002 and 2011, but it was two decades after he left the office.
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But the regulations that allow these companies to operate in Cuba, and allow Americans to visit there, exist under executive action – meaning they can be reversed by the next president. “These are two countries who have confronted each other for fifty something years, and on this occasion the visit of the USA president to Cuba is reason for happiness and rejoicing”, he said. Last month, the Obama administration lifted economic sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program, following a diplomatic deal that has raised hopes about warmer ties between the US and Tehran.
