White House aides said Obama will lay out a vision of greater freedoms and economic opportunity.
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The president’s letter, thanking Ms Yarza, was dispatched to Cuba on Wednesday.
The invitation didn’t mention Obama, but the meeting will take place during his visit Tuesday morning.
He also warned that Cuba’s communist government, which has held power for more than 50 years, will proceed gradually and deliberately in broadening trade ties with the U.S. But Leiva is realistic, too.
Margaret Pullés Machado is first generation Cuban-American and President & CEO of VamosGlobal which helps advance the historic opening to Cuba through cross-cultural missions and exchanges between Americans and Cubans. Announcing that Obama’s speech would be carried live on Cuban television, Rodriguez said Cubans would be able to draw their own conclusions from the president. “We can all say that the real Cuba is in Matanzas or Montego, but the reality is that so many Cuban images we have in our mind are in Havana”, Martin said.
When U.S. President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and their daughters Sasha and Malia are strolling down La Habana Vieja, many Cubans in Miami will be watching.
The trip will mark a watershed moment in U.S.-Cuba relations, making Obama the first sitting U.S. president to set foot on the island in almost seven decades.
Amid mild temperatures and sunny skies, Obama left the White House in the mid-afternoon to play at Andrews Air Force Base in the nearby state of Maryland.
US officials have said in recent days that direct mail ended shortly after the Cuban revolution.
Republicans opposed the move, saying the president’s agreement with the Castro dictatorship has done nothing to resolve the human rights violations in the island country.
Dissidents on the island told VOA on Friday that Obama’s visit and the diplomatic restart didn’t mean the repression had decreased.
“In part, this is the result of a historical attempt by the United States to undermine the Cuban government through telecommunications and therefore Havana doesn’t trust our hardware”, William M. LeoGrande, School of Public Issues professor for the American University in Washington. Rodriguez said Obama could offer much more without going to Congress, which must approve any end to the embargo imposed three years after Fidel Castro’s rebels overthrew a pro-American government in 1959.
Despite the differences between the United States and Cuba, both countries have taken steps to increase economic ties ahead of Obama’s trip.
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In a stern and lengthy speech in Havana, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez dismissed Obama’s lofty rhetoric about speaking directly to the Cuban people about their future during his trip, which starts Sunday. We brought Members representing the business community, education, construction, infrastructure, health care to see what we could learn from Cubans, and also to see what opportunities will exist for Americans.
