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[quote]WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will pay a historic visit to Cuba in the coming weeks, senior Obama administration officials said, becoming the first president to set foot on the island in nearly seven decades.
The brief visit in mid-March will mark a watershed moment for relations between the U.S. and Cuba, a communist nation estranged from the U.S. for over half a century until Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro moved toward rapprochement more than a year ago. Since then, the nations have reopened embassies in Washington and Havana and have moved to restore commercial air travel, with a presidential visit seen as a key next step toward bridging the divide.
Obama's stop in Cuba will be part of a broader trip to Latin America that the president will take next month, said the officials, who requested anonymity because the trip hasn't been officially announced. The White House planned to unveil Obama's travel plans later Thursday.
Though Obama had long been expected to visit Cuba in his final year, word of his travel plans drew immediate resistance from opponents of warmer ties with Cuba — including Republican presidential candidates.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, whose father fled to the U.S. from Cuba in the 1950s, said Obama shouldn't visit while the Castro family remains in power. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, another child of Cuban immigrants, lambasted the president for visiting what he called an "anti-American communist dictatorship."
"Today, a year and two months after the opening of Cuba, the Cuban government remains as oppressive as ever," Rubio said on CNN. Told of Obama's intention to visit, he added, "Probably not going to invite me."
With less than a year left in office, Obama has been eager to make rapid progress on restoring economic and diplomatic ties to cement warming relations with Cuba that his administration started. Following secret negotiations between their governments, Obama and Castro announced in late 2014 that they would begin normalizing ties, and months later held the first face-to-face meeting between an American and Cuban president since 1958.[/quote]
[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-35601534[/url]
[url]http://www.mlive.com/news/us-world/index.ssf/2016/02/obama_plans_historic_trip_to_c.html[/url]
I wonder if he'll meet with Fidel himself either publicly or secretly, I don't know how everyone will take it tho but it'd be absolutely monumental
[QUOTE=fruxodaily;49765305]I wonder if he'll meet with Fidel himself either publicly or secretly, I don't know how everyone will take it tho but it'd be absolutely monumental[/QUOTE]
I was wondering that myself. Either way I think we can look forward to a great speech of some kind.
What really surprises me about all this is that more Republicans aren't throwing a huger and more vocal fit over it not only because of Cuba's government, because Obama is the one doing it.
But I'm glad somebody's at least trying to get us and Cuba back on better terms again, the Cuban Missile Crisis ended fifty-four years ago and the (First?)Cold War is over and it's time to move on. I just hope whoever succeeds Obama doesn't blow it all away.
Also I like how people act like that the United States isn't/hasn't been on good terms with other countries ran by brutal dictators particularly the ones that we helped get into power.
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