“¿Que boláCuba?” Obama wrote – Spanish for “how’s it going?” And even as hopes were high for the visit, there were also signs of tension.
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Cruz opposes Obama’s policy and criticized him on Twitter and in an opinion piece for Politico in which he accused Obama of turning his back on political dissidents in Cuba. The last Lady in White had scarcely been removed from the street before pro-government Cubans began cleaning up the fliers.
Havana crafts-maker Buby Cañosa is one of the few artisans making knick-knacks to celebrate Obama’s Cuba trip. But much of Obama’s visit was about appealing directly to the Cuban people and celebrating the island’s vibrant culture.
Xiomara Sanchez said she feels “proud that (Obama) is coming to Cuba to find a way toward a friendship, a family, with us”. “What we need is freedom for our country, what we need is freedom for our people”.
“There are no policies that have to be dismantled in Cuba in order to advance towards the normalisation of relations with the United States”.
There’s at least one place in Cuba where the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama isn’t the center of attention: That’s in the country’s state-run newspapers. The aim, Rhodes said, is to make “the process of normalization irreversible”.
Cuban and U.S. flags are seen on balconies in Havana on March 20, 2016.
The White House has over the past 15 months been chipping away at the embargo with Cuba that needs the Republican Congress to end it. And, that list will really be mouth watering and cause a true problem for Congress (particularly the republicans) should they attempt to vote down the Guantanamo portion of the new “deal”. Along with lawmakers, a large delegation of business leaders are on the island to attend an entrepreneurship event on Tuesday. Several U.S. business leaders will also take part in the visit, including an executive from Starwood hotels, which just inked an agreement to manage three Cuban properties.
US engagement makes sense if it comes with conditions. That’s increasingly a minority view among both Cuban-Americans and the broader USA population.
“It’s a soft war using visitors as the soldiers, commercial airlines as the air force, and cruise ships as the navy”, said John Kavulich, president of the US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.
Cruz later said that as president he would not visit Cuba under the same political conditions.
After meeting embassy staff he toured old town Havana, greeting the Archbishop of Havana, Jaime Ortega, who helped facilitate secret talks with the government.
The White House has made it clear President Obama will meet political dissidents, whether the Cuban authorities like it or not. On Sunday, hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Little Havana in Miami to protest the trip.
Ahead of his trip, Obama announced moves to further lift US restrictions on Cuba, including easing travel restrictions for Americans and restoring Cuba’s access to the global financial system.
“In all the years I’ve been going to Cuba, the island has tended to feel like a wound coil, eager to be sprung, but never more so than right after President Obama’s announcement in December of 2014”, he says.
The New York Times will have three reporters and two photographers in Cuba during President Obama’s three-day visit to the island, the first by a sitting president in 88 years.
The last time as USA president visited Cuba was 1928.
Yet while Obama remains a popular figure in Cuba, the jubilation that surged here in the early days of detente has been tempered by the absence of tangible improvement in most people’s lives.
“There will be no mojitos at the U.S. Embassy for them”, the Texas senator wrote, jabbing Obama’s visit, which included a formal welcoming ceremony and a state dinner at the Revolutionary Palace. He’ll join baseball-crazed Cubans for a historic game between their beloved national team and Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays.
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Obama will remain in Havana until Tuesday, when he continues his journey to Argentina.
