WASHINGTON President Barack Obama announced on Thursday that he will make an historic visit to Cuba in March, the first by a serving USA president in 88 years, with the aim of expanding upon the achievements of the bilateral normalization of relations and urging improvements in Cubas human rights record. Since then, the nations have reopened embassies in Washington and Havana and moved to restore commercial air travel, with a presidential visit seen as a key next step toward bridging the divide.
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Pool/Getty Images President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced the reestablishment of diplomatic ties just over a year ago.
Obama will not meet with former President Raul Castro who is a vociferous critic of USA policy.
The Havana visit is likely to spark debate on Cuba policy in the campaign for the November US presidential election, particularly in the swing voting state of Florida, where many anti-Castro Cuban-Americans live.
But Menendez said Thursday that the Castro administration has continued to commit human rights abuses, and to grant US fugitives, like Joanne Chesimard, who is wanted for the murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster, “safe harbor” on the island.
Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said Obama is making the trip specifically to push for more reforms, noting that while advancements have been made, the “progress is insufficient”.
It has been almost two decades since the last bilaterally focused visit by a US President to Argentina, Latin America’s third largest country, the White House said. Businessman Hugo Cancio discusses Cuba-U.S. relationsCCTV American interviewed Hugo Cancio about Cuba-U.S. relations.
The last sitting president to visit Havana was Calvin Coolidge in 1928.
Obama has argued that the long USA effort to put an economic squeeze on Cuba has failed to advance US interests. Earlier this week, the United States and Cuba signed an arrangement that will allow American-owned airline companies to provide regularly scheduled commercial flights from the U.S.to Cuba, as opposed to chartered flights granted only for authorized travel. Republicans complained that the trip would lend legitimacy to the island’s Communist government.
He called it a “real mistake” to “go there and essentially act as an apologist”.
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MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will visit Cuba in mid-March. “Cuba’s political system did not change”, Rhodes writes. He has also lifted travel restrictions to Cuba and airline services which were suspended for years have now been restored.
