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Obama becomes the first U.S. president to visit Cuba in 88 years

Obama becomes the first U.S. president to visit Cuba in 88 years

Posted March. 22, 2016 07:20,   

Updated March. 22, 2016 07:48

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U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday had a historic summit meeting with his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro, the President of the Council of State of Cuba, at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana to discuss measures for normalization of the two countries, which makes Mr. Obama the first U.S. president to visit Cuba in 88 years.

The two heads of state exchanged opinions over the issue of lifting the U.S. embargo against Cuba, a practice that has been maintained after the announcement of normalizing diplomatic relations in 2014. Furthermore, President Obama expressed the opinion that political freedom must be guaranteed for Cuba to achieve reforms and openness. As Cuba, which used to be the only isolated country in the American continent, is going down the road to openness and reform in earnest thanks to President Obama’s historic visit to the island, close attention is being paid to how North Korea will react to it, which has become the only isolated communist regime in the world.

President Obama is slated to make his first public speech before the Cuban citizens on Tuesday at Alicia Alonso Grand Theatre of Havana and propose his vision for Cuban reforms. It is expected that he would touch upon the issue over human rights such as political prisoners, which is a sensitive matter to the Cuban government. The U.S. president is also scheduled to meet with dissents after the speech. However, pundits say there exists a subtle different in stance between the two countries as the Cuban president still holds the position that “the U.S. must not intervene in Cuba’s state affairs excessively.” Before the visit, hundreds of dissents were either taken to the police or detained.

It was on Sunday that President Obama arrived on Air Force One at the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana to embark on his historic state visit to Cuba that is to last two nights and three days. “Back in 1928, President Coolidge came on a battleship, it took him three days to get there. It only took me three hours. This visit will be a historic opportunity to engage with the Cuban people,” the president said after being greeted at Melia Habana Hotel by Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis and members of the U.S. Embassy in Cuba.



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