Obama lands in Havana on his three-day historic visit to Cuba
Monitoring Desk: Obama has landed in Havana along with his family. His is the first President who is visiting Cuba after year 1928.
This historic visit is being taken place just after 15 months of announcement restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Obama is the president who deviated from stereotype Foreign Policy in which Cuba was an enemy and a communist state. Hawks in US diplomatic circles are calling this visit “premature” and believe that Cuba must woprk on Human Rights issue before complete normalization of relations between the two countries.
Main issues that will come under discussion include lifting embargo that started in 1959 revolution, Human rights issue, Cuban Adjustment Act and Guantanamo Bay settlement between the two countries.
ABC news reported that President Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and their daughters, Malia and Sasha Obama, will spend two and a half days in Cuba on an official state visit which will include a bilateral meeting with President Raul Castro.
“The three-day trip, the first by a U.S. president in 88 years, is the culmination of a diplomatic opening announced by Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro in December 2014, ending a Cold War-era estrangement that began when the Cuban revolution ousted a pro-American government in 1959”, reported Reuters.
Underscoring the ideological divide that persists between Washington and Havana, Cuban police, backed by hundreds of pro-government demonstrators, broke up the regular march of a leading dissident group, the Ladies in White, detaining about 50 people just hours before Obama was due to arrive.Plainclothes police blanketed the capital with security while public works crews busily laid down asphalt in a city where drivers joke they must navigate “potholes with streets.”
