Visit excites Cubans

CUBA | HAVANA — Cubans hailed President Barack Obama’s announcement Thursday that he will make a twoday trip to the communist-run island, saying that they want the historic visit to spur faster change in their lives.

Obama’s March 21-22 trip is meant to create so much momentum behind his new policy of detente with Cuba that the next U.S. president cannot reverse it, administration officials said.

Since Obama and President Raul Castro announced on Dec. 17, 2014, that they would restore diplomatic relations, a surge in tourism has flooded private and government-run tourism businesses with cash. Over just the past week, the two countries sealed deals to re-establish commercial flights, open the first U.S. factory in Cuba in six decades and return a U.S. missile that was mistakenly shipped from France to Cuba in 2014.