Obama to embark on historic Cuba visit in March

Barack Obama on Thursday announced that he along with Michelle will next month make a landmark Cuba visit, the first by a US President in nearly 90 years, as the two arch-rivals look to bury their Cold War-era animosity.

“Next month, I’ll travel to Cuba to advance our progress and efforts that can improve the lives of the Cuban people,” Obama said in one of a series of tweets.

“14 months ago, I announced that we would begin normalising relations with Cuba -- and we’ve already made significant progress,” he said.

Obama’s brief stop is planned for March 21-22.

On Obama’s Cuba visit, White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, said, “For more than fifty years, the United States pursued a policy of isolating and pressuring Cuba. While the policy was rooted in the context of the Cold War, our efforts continued long after the rest of the world had changed.” 

“Put simply, US Cuba policy wasn’t working and was well beyond its expiration date. Cuba’s political system did not change,” he said.

Talking about the landmark visit, Obama said, “We still have differences with the Cuban government that I will raise directly. America will always stand for human rights around the world.” 

Calvin Coolidge was the last US president to visit Cuba in 1928. He went there to address the Sixth Annual International Conference of American States in Havana. 

“Our flag flies over our Embassy in Havana once again. More Americans are travelling to Cuba than at any time in the last 50 years,” Obama said, referring to the moves of reopening of embassies in each other’s country and the agreement to resume commercial air traffic.

Explaining why President Obama is visiting Cuba, Rhodes said, “the United States was isolated within our own hemisphere -- and in the wider world -- which disagreed with our approach. Most importantly, our policy was not making life better for the Cuban people and in many ways, it was making it worse.”