President Barack Obama’s trip to Cuba on March 21-22 marks a pivotal moment in the unfolding process of normalizing U.S.-Cuban relations.
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WCVB’s Russ Nelligan visited Cuba and captured these images of a country buzzing about the upcoming visit of President Barack Obama. While we welcome the new dialogue between Cuba and the global community, we urge that this dialogue includes worldwide human rights actors, as a way to advance the protection and promotion of the human rights of the Cuban people. “In the military, for nearly all crimes, you can be convicted and still get no jail time”, said Eric Carpenter, a law professor at Florida International University who served as an Army prosecutor and defense attorney but has no role in the Bergdahl case.
The president plans to address the Cuban people directly in a historic speech on Tuesday. The changes have allowed hundreds of thousands of people to work in the private sector and have relaxed limits on cellphones, Internet and Cubans’ comfort with discussing their country’s problems in public, for example.
Cuban and USA flags are seen outside a restaurant in Havana, Cuba on Thursday. According to specialists, the deals were a deliberate decision by Havana, stemming from its lack of trust in the U.S.
Cuba, for better or worse, is becoming more mainstream as relations between the USA and the island nation improve. And while Raul Castro now continues to preside over a police state, his is not the only police state on the planet, plenty of which the United States does a brisk business with. Still, Obama told Yahoo News a year ago, “Raúl Castro recognizes the need for change”, and wants to “help usher in those changes before he and his brother are gone”, leaving a successor without the clout to transform Cuba either politically or economically.
Havana is insisting that the USA drop its trade embargo, something which Congress so far refuses to do.
Henken said Obama also will explain to the Cuban people that the United States is not the reason for the island’s poor economic conditions.
The president, who will travel to Cuba on Sunday for a two-day trip, replied in a letter that was also posted on the blog.
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Two years after taking power in 2008, Raul Castro launched economic and social reforms that appear slow-moving to many Cubans and foreigners, but are lasting and widespread within Cuban society. First Lady Michelle Obama is joining her husband on the trip, along with their daughters, Sasha and Malia.
