Obama’s trip to Cuba spurs opposition

GOP candidates, U.S. lawmakers believe the visit rewards regime

WASHINGTON— President Barack Obama’s plans for a history-making trip to Cuba drew hopeful cheers in Havana on Thursday but equally emphatic condemnation from many U.S. lawmakers and Republican presidential candidates, who accused the president of rewarding a “dictatorial regime.”

Jeb Bush called the plans “appalling.” Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, born in Havana, deemed Obama’s March 21-22 visit “absolutely shameful.” New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez — a member of Obama’s party — accused him of ceding U.S. leverage to the communist nation 90 miles south of Florida.

“The president is again prioritizing short-term economic interests over long-term and enduring American values,” said Menendez, another Cuban-American.

He likened Obama’s rapprochement with Cuba to his nuclear deal with Iran.

Pressing Castro

Not so, said Obama, who pledged to press President Raul Castro on human rights and other issues during their meeting in the Cuban capital. The White House said pointedly that it had put Castro’s government on notice that Obama would also meet with dissidents and activists — a precondition for the president’s visit.

“We still have differences with the Cuban government that I will raise directly,” Obama said on Twitter.

The trip will mark a watershed moment in U.S.-Cuba relations, making Obama the first sitting U.S. president to set foot on the island in nearly seven decades. The U.S. was estranged from the communist nation for over half a century until Obama and Castro moved toward detente more than a year ago.

Since then, the nations have reopened embassies in Washington and Havana and moved to restore commercial flights, with a presidential visit seen as a key next step.

Yosvany Martinez, 36, a parking attendant in Havana, said he’d seen changes in his country since the thaw in relations: more tourism and happier people. But Cubans are struggling economically, he said.

“This visit for me and for all Cubans will be an open door to what we need, which is that they finally lift the blockade, which is what hurts us,” Martinez said.

Embargo an issue

Obama hopes to persuade Congress to lift the trade embargo — Havana’s biggest request of the U.S.

Although short-term prospects have seemed unlikely, some Republicans have suggested Congress could pass legislation repealing sanctions by year’s end.

Though Obama sees the re-launch with Cuba as a major achievement of his foreign policy, he’s had to strike a careful balance to defend engaging with a communist government that is seen as stifling political opposition and restricting free speech.

The White House pointed to Cuba’s recent release of long-term political prisoners, expansion of Internet hot spots and easing of restrictions on private business. On the economic front, the two nations signed a deal this week on commercial air traffic, and the U.S. approved its first factory in Cuba since 1959, when Fidel Castro took power and nationalized billions of dollars in American property.

Still, Obama’s advisers said the U.S. isn’t satisfied with Cuba’s human rights approach, citing a rise in short-term detentions as an example.

The last sitting president to visit Havana was Calvin Coolidge in 1928. Former President Jimmy Carter visited in 2011.