His hair is greying and he’s nearly reached his mid-fifties, yet the situation between these two nations is yet to be fully resolved. “The thoughts and prayers of the American people are with the people of Belgium and we stand in solidarity with them”, said a solemn President Obama.
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President Obama was greeted warmly upon his arrival aboard Air Force One in his first attempt to travel to Cuba.
“Citizens should be free to speak their mind without fear, to organize and to criticize their government and to protest peacefully”, Obama said in the much-anticipated speech. “Voters should be able to choose their governments in free and democratic elections”.
During the game both presidents were seen participating in a wave with the rest of the spectators.
The scene of the leader of the United States, the superpower to the north once routinely reviled by the Cuban government, standing on Cuban soil urging such changes would have been unthinkable before the two countries began their rapprochement. He and his administration must respond and reciprocate. He also called for the lifting of the embargo (only the United States Congress can do that) and for the return to Cuba of the naval base at Guantánamo Bay.
“I think the speech was evidence that Obama believes that public diplomacy can work with Cuba in 2016”, Hare said.
After the meeting, which lasted just over an hour, dissident Manuel Cuesta told AFP that it had been “excellent”.
ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP/Getty Images Cuban President Raul Castro and President Obama sparred over human rights during Obama’s historic three-day visit. “It contains discouraging elements and intimidating effects”, said Castro.
U.S. President Barack Obama condemned deadly terrorist attacks in Brussels on Tuesday, calling for global unity against terrorism and pledging to do everything to help bring those responsible to justice. “I have come here to extend the hand of friendship to the Cuban people”.
“Why you have Cuban political prisoners?”
In his speech, Obama acknowledged past errors in America’s policy of hostility towards Cuba.
“It is not only the blockade [embargo] that has overwhelmed [us] for years”. At the end, the Cuban leader lightly applauded from the balcony, then waved to the crowd.
First, Obama should make it clear that further opening of ties between the USA and Cuba is contingent upon further political, economic and social reforms.
US President Barack Obama on Tuesday told Cubans in an unprecedented live television address that he had come to the communist island to “bury” their decades of Cold War conflict.
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On Monday, Obama pushed Havana to improve human rights, publicly sparring with President Raul Castro who showed flashes of anger and hit back at United States “double standards”.
