President Obama is due tomorrow to become the first sitting president to visit Cuba for 88 years, a visit created to accelerate a growing rapprochement between the former Cold War foes.
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The three-day trip to Cuba, which will be followed by a trip to Argentina, will include a bilateral meeting between Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro.
Earnest was unclear about who the dissidents would be that Obama will meet with.
“Let’s not forget that the Castro regime has been guilty of countless human right abuses”, said House Speaker Paul Ryan at a Thursday press conference when asked about the embargo. He said if Obama was preoccupied with empowering Cubans, “something must be going wrong in USA democracy”.
Yet Obama’s opponents insist he is rewarding a government that has yet to show it is serious about improving human rights and opening up its economy and political system.
And among the letters delivered on Wednesday’s historic service was a response from Mr Obama, who wrote back to tell her how much he was looking forward to his visit on Sunday.
“Welcome to Cuba”, the poster says under the Stars and Stripes and the Cuban flag.
Joint ventures and foreign direct investment from China to Cuba are now relatively small, but this is expected to grow in the coming years.
One of those traveling with Obama will be U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, who has long pushed to normalize U.S. and Cuba relations.
Iriondo testified in Congress late past year that since Obama’s 2014 announcement “prominent members of the civic resistance movement in Cuba have died under highly suspicious extrajudicial and sudden circumstances”.
The Unites States is not the only country vying for Cuba’s attention and open markets.
The president said he would be working through Friday and making several announcements during the trip.
The 44th president will hold talks with the communist government, but the White House has made it clear the emphasis will be on reaching the Cuban people directly.
“The great problem, as we know, is a journey of a thousand miles starts with a few steps”, said Peter Hakim of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank.
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Yet many Americans still see Cuba as president John F. Kennedy’s “imprisoned island”, synonymous with conflagration, communism and repression.
