US President Barack Obama will travel to Cuba in the coming weeks, a US official said Wednesday (Feb 18), in a landmark sign of the thaw in relations between the Cold War-era foes.
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Obama also said a year ago that he would like to visit Cuba before leaving office in January 2017. But even as Obama makes progress in his drive to forge closer commercial ties with Cuba, the process is hamstrung by sanctions that have left American businesses wondering what they are permitted to do.
Obama will be only the second sitting US president to visit Cuba.
The official announcement of the trip, planned for March 21-22 before Obama flies to Argentina, is expected on Thursday.
Though Obama had always been expected to visit Cuba in his final year, word of his plans drew immediate resistance from opponents of warmer ties with Cuba – including Republican presidential candidates. They are harboring a killer from new jersey who killed a state trooper in New Jersey, Rubio said, referring to the case of radical activist Assata Shakur.
That helps explain why thousands of Americans, including business owners and politicians, have traveled to Cuba since the opening was announced, but only a handful of trade deals have been finalized. Right-wing President Mauricio Macri has been eager to cozy up to the United States after years of fraught relations between the two countries.
There has, however, been some opposition to Obama’s trip.
“Cruz’s father was born in Cuba, where he was arrested and jailed before fleeing to the United States in the 1950”.
The Republican majority in Congress has defied Obama’s call to rescind the five-decade-old embargo, so he has used his executive authority to relax trade and travel restrictions.
“They come to the US, steal money, [commit] Medicare fraud, go back to Cuba”.
Mr Cruz said the President would be acting “as an apologist” and should not go while the Castro family remains in power. The last American leader to visit the island while in office was Calvin Coolidge in 1928.
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During a CNN town hall on Wednesday night, Rubio said Obama should be demanding more democratic reforms by the Cuban government before agreeing to visit. The two countries have reopened embassies in Havana and Washington; agreed to a pilot program restarting direct mail service; signed two deals on environmental protection; and launched talks on issues from human rights to compensation for USA properties confiscated by Cubas revolution. Still, while Obama has long expressed an interest in visiting Cuba, White House officials had said the visit wouldn’t occur unless and until the conditions were right. Lift the embargo, “he added”.
