‘What’s up, Cuba?’ Obama arrives in Havana for historic visit to former cold war foe
US President Barack Obama has arrived in Cuba, heralding the end of decades of enmity between the two nations
President Barack Obama arrived in Cuba on a historic visit, opening a new chapter in US engagement with the island’s Communist government after decades of animosity between the former cold war foes.
Stepping down onto the red carpet in light rain on Sunday, Obama and his family were greeted by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, the top Cuban official present. The formal welcoming ceremony will be on Monday when Obama meets Cuban President Raul Castro at the presidential palace.
The three-day trip, the first by a US president to Cuba in 88 years, is the culmination of a diplomatic opening announced by Obama and Castro in December 2014, ending a Cold War-era estrangement that began when the Cuban revolution ousted a pro-American government in 1959.
Obama, who abandoned a longtime US policy of trying to isolate Cuba, wants to make his shift irreversible. But major obstacles remain to full normalisation of ties, and the Democratic president’s critics at home say the visit is premature.
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 arrived.