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 In the first visit by a U.S. president to the Caribbean nation
since 1928, Obama will meet entrepreneurs and people from different
walks of life during the trip on March 21 and 22, but he is unlikely
to see Fidel Castro, the former president and revolutionary leader,
U.S. officials said.
The White House hopes Obama's trip will help accelerate change on
the Communist-run island and cement progress made under his watch,
but Republicans at home complained that it would give legitimacy to
Cuba's oppressive government.
"Next month, I'll travel to Cuba to advance our progress and efforts
that can improve the lives of the Cuban people," Obama wrote on
Twitter.
After decades of hostility following Cuba's 1959 revolution, the two
countries agreed in 2014 to move to reopen ties, but the U.S.
embargo on Cuba remains and Washington frequently criticizes
Havana's human rights record.
The opening to Cuba was a diplomatic feat that is likely to form
part of Obama's foreign policy legacy along with the nuclear deal he
struck with another long-time U.S. foe, Iran.
Officials decided that traveling to Cuba now rather than at the end
of Obama's term would give them more leverage to make progress on
expanding Internet access and opening up business opportunities for
Cubans and Americans.
Obama regularly meets with civil society groups when he travels
abroad, and officials said this trip would be no different.
"He’ll be meeting with dissidents, with members of civil society,
including those who certainly oppose the Cuban government’s
policies," Obama's deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes,
told reporters.
Josefina Vidal, the director of U.S. affairs for the Cuban Foreign
Ministry, said the Cuban government is willing to talk with the
United States about its concerns.
"Cuba is open to speak to the U.S. government about any topic,
including human rights," Vidal told reporters. She said the Cuban
government wants Guantanamo Bay returned to Cuba and the embargo
lifted before relations can be normalized.
Cuban dissidents gave a cautious welcome to the trip.
"He should take advantage of this opportunity to send a loud, clear
message," prominent opposition blogger Yoani Sanchez wrote on her
website. "The material and moral poverty that surrounds us is not
the responsibility of the United States."
The United States has upheld a strict economic embargo on Cuba for
more than 50 years, providing the Cuban government with a strong
propaganda tool against Washington.
CAMPAIGN DEBATE
Obama's visit is likely to spark debate in the campaign for the Nov.
8 U.S. presidential election, particularly in the swing voting state
of Florida, where many anti-Castro Cuban-Americans live.
Two Republican candidates, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, are
conservative sons of Cuban immigrants and foreign policy hawks.
Rubio urged Obama to reconsider his trip, citing political arrests
in the past year. “You will send the message to the oppressed Cuban
people that you stand with their oppressors," he said in a letter on
Thursday.
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First lady Michelle Obama will accompany her husband on the trip to
Cuba and also to Argentina.
Obama's Havana visit carries huge symbolic value as his
administration takes steps to expand commerce with Cuba, only 90
miles (145 km) from Florida. The last sitting U.S. president to
visit Cuba was Calvin Coolidge.
Tourism has surged recently. Airbnb, an online home-rental site,
says U.S. rentals of homes in Cuba are booming. The countries have
agreed to restore airline flights, and companies ranging from
tractor manufacturers to telecommunications firms are assessing the
market.
Cuba and Major League Baseball are discussing holding an exhibition
game between the Cuban national team and Tampa Bay Rays in Havana on
March 22, raising the possibility that Obama could throw the
ceremonial first pitch.
Obama still seeks to pressure U.S. lawmakers to remove the
decades-old embargo on Cuba but Republicans control Congress and are
unlikely to act soon.
A persistent congressional critic of the thaw in relations with
Cuba, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, said the trip would be a reward that
the Cuban government did not deserve.
"Pitiful that Obama rewards Castros with visit to Cuba while
conditions for the Cuban people are getting worse," said
Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban-American Republican from south Florida.
Rhodes said he expected Cuban officials would bring up the status of
the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay during the trip, but the
administration opposes returning the area to the Communist
government.
The White House did not provide details about which groups Obama
would seek to meet, and said the United States would like to see
more freedom of assembly and speech in Cuba.
Cuba says it has no political prisoners but the Cuban Commission of
Human Rights and National Reconciliation, a dissident group, counts
about 80 political prisoners in detention.
Fifty-three were released around the time of the 2014 agreement to
normalize relations with the United States, but others were arrested
last year, the group said.
(Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Susan Heavey and Megan
Cassella and Roberta Rampton in Washington and Nelson Acosta in
Havana; Editing by Alistair Bell)
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