But the changes so far have done more to enhance the lifestyles of a few than to bring freedom and opportunity to the majority of Cubans.
Advertisement
The recently agreed to broadcast will be “quite powerful”, Earnest said.
“The list of people invited to meet with the president in Cuba in non-negotiable”, Earnest said.
As Air Force One rolls to a stop, Obama will become the first sitting United States president to visit Cuba since Calvin Coolidge arrived on a battleship in 1928, before the discovery of penicillin or invention of the ballpoint pen.
President Barack Obama will meet with dissidents of his choice during an upcoming trip to Cuba despite any objections from Havana, the White House said Friday.
“The Cuban people empowered themselves decades ago”, he said bluntly of the 1959 revolution that reclaimed Cuban independence from its northern neighbour’s grip. He knows that Obama’s “gestures” may last only as long as he’s in office. The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation stated that in 2015, more than 8,000 Cubans were arrested.
And before departing on Tuesday, Obama will share in one of the closest cultural ties between Cubans and Americans – a baseball game. “Moreover, his visit could open the door for future visits from global human rights organizations and the lifting of a needless economic embargo that bars Cubans from receiving basic necessities”, said Marselha Gonçalves Margerin, Amnesty worldwide USA’s advocacy director for the Americas.
President Raul Castro’s administration has denied that any arbitrary detentions take place in the country and has maintained that Cubans’ fundamental human rights are acknowledged.
The poster, put up in the street near a cathedral that Obama is expected to visit after his arrival Sunday, is a montage showing Obama alongside Raul Castro, the Cuban president and brother of Fidel.
“In the coming days we will try to make transfers in dollars with banking entities in third countries and in the United States to verify such transactions can be done”, Rodriguez told a news conference. If they work, Cuba will eliminate the 10 per cent penalty.
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, right, is received by Cuba’s Vice President Miguel Diaz Canel upon arrival to Jose Marti International airport in Havana, Cuba, late Thursday. The White House stood firmly behind Obama’s plans to deliver a pro-democracy message directly to Cubans.
Advertisement
A scene in downtown Havana on March 17, 2016. No longer will all ships have to be boarded by the U.S. Coast Guard, though the Coast Guard still can conduct random checks.
