‘Rock star’ welcome awaits Obama
President’s trip may help with warming relations, but visit is not without its critics in Cuba and U.S.
As the first sitting U.S. president to visit Cuba in 88 years, Barack Obama’s trip signals a new era of rapprochement between two old foes, and a shift in approach from isolation to engagement.
The three-day visit cements Obama’s legacy as responsible for opening up ties to Cuba, although the timing has infuriated critics who say the communist island nation has failed to improve its human rights record in the months before the visit.
Still, the three-day visit, which begins Sunday, is enormously significant and will help to advance the bilateral relationship after six decades of hostility.
“President Obama is like a rock star in Cuba. He is articulate, thoughtful and being an African-American is an added bonus,” said Mark Entwistle, a former Canadian ambassador to Cuba.
While the visit is unlikely to yield any big announcements, it allows both leaders to set in place the next steps for Cuba and the U.S. to deal with some of the complex issues they face, including Cuba’s political and economic reforms, U.S. claims of compensation from expropriated assets and the 54-year-old embargo.
Obama is expected to meet with President Raul Castro, make a speech on his vision of future U.S.Cuba relations, attend an exhibition baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban national team, do a walkabout in Old Havana, and meet with dissidents, although he has not identified which ones.
There may be some uncomfortable moments, especially over the visit with dissidents, but in the long run, engagement with Cuba will create more pressure internally for Cuba to normalize its political system, as its citizens become more prosperous and connected to the outside world, said Arch Ritter, a Carleton University professor, author and Cuba specialist.
On a personal level, many Cubans already have affection for Americans, with whom they share so much culturally, and for Obama. “Cubans are still stuck with a 50-year white dynasty,” said Ritter. Since the December 2014 announcement that Cuba and the U.S. would normalize relations, the countries have reopened embassies in each other’s capitals and taken steps to redefine their relationship. Obama has used his executive powers to dismantle aspects of the embargo, although he lacks support in the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress to overturn it. This week, Obama issued further regulations to promote U.S. trade and travel to Cuba.
For its part, Cuba has increased access to the Internet, permitting roaming deals with U.S. telecommunications operators, and allowed commercial airline service with the United States. Economic reforms, introduced in 2009, mean that today about 500,000 Cubans are registered to work in the private sector, including restaurants and beauty parlours. Other challenges remain. For Cuba, there is the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay. For the U.S., there is concern about the treatment of dissidents and the frustration from the business community about Cuba’s closed economy, including the fact that foreign investment is the prerogative of the state.
While overall there has been a reduction in the number of political prisoners, the Cuban government temporarily detained 8,816 dissidents in 2015 to keep them from demonstrating, according to the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who until Tuesday was running for the Republican party’s presidential nomination, has called Cuba a repressive regime and denounced the president’s visit. Older Cuban-Americans are also more resistant to working with Cuba than younger generations, polls show.
Human Rights Watch called on other Latin American countries in the region to rally international pressure on Castro to implement further reforms.
“By rejecting the U.S. policy of embargo and isolation, President Obama has removed one of the Cuban government’s main pretexts for repressive rule,” said Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director with the New York-based organization.
Luis Lazaro Guanche, leader of one of the largest dissident groups in Cuba, the Patriotic Union of Cuba, called Obama’s visit “positive,” in his Twitter account.