Obama, Castro come face to face in historic meeting in Cuba
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cuban President Raul Castro, left, shook hands with President Barack Obama during a meeting in Revolution Palace today. Brushing past profound differences, Obama and Castro sat down for a historic meeting, offering critical clues about whether Obama’s sharp U-turn in policy will be fully reciprocated.
HAVANA » Brushing off decades of distrust, President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro shook hands today in Havana’s Palace of the Revolution, a remarkable moment for two countries working to put the bitterness of their Cold War-era enmity behind them.
Obama and Castro stood together as a Cuban military band played the national anthems of Cuba and the United States — stunning sounds in a country where resistance to the U.S. has been part of the national mission for decades. Greeting each other warmly, the two leaders inspected an honor guard before sitting down for a series of meetings.
Whether Obama and Castro could use the meeting, one of the first since Cuba’s 1959 revolution and the only one in Cuba, to further the ambitious diplomatic experiment they started 15 months ago was an open question, infusing Obama’s historic trip to Cuba with uncertainty and tension for both governments.
For Obama, there was no better place than Havana to show that engagement can do more than isolation to bring about change on the communist island. Yet for the Cubans, the glaring question is whether their own government is ready to prove the ambitious diplomatic opening is more than just talk.
American companies, eager for opportunities in Cuba, were wasting no time. Obama announced that tech giant Google had struck a deal to expand Wi-Fi and broadband Internet on the island 90 miles south of Florida.
Outside the palace in Havana’s sprawling Revolution Square, Obama posed for a photo in front of a giant sculpture of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, creating an indelible image sure to reverberate in Cuba and beyond. The revolutionary leader was once one of Fidel Castro’s top lieutenants, his face an iconic symbol of Cuba’s revolution. That revolution is reviled by critics of the Castro government.
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Paying tribute to another Cuban independence hero, Obama adjusted a wreath at the foot of a 59-foot statue of Jose Marti, calling it “a historic moment.”
“It is a great honor to pay tribute to Jose Marti, who gave his life for independence of his homeland,” Obama wrote in the guestbook. “His passion for liberty, freedom, and self-determination lives on in the Cuban people today.”
On his first full day in Cuba, Obama planned an event with U.S. and Cuban entrepreneurs aimed at championing Cuba’s fledgling private sector. He was to be feted in the evening at a state dinner, an honor illustrating just how far the U.S. and Cuba have come despite their deep ideological differences.
The long-awaited meeting between Obama and Castro was one of the most scrutinized moments of Obama’s 2½-day trip to Cuba, the first while in office by a U.S. president in nearly 90 years. The White House’s attempts to get Castro to agree to a joint news conference appeared unsuccessful, and it was unclear whether they’d answer any questions.
As Obama began his trip, he said that with less than a year left in office, “the time is right.”
Since succeeding his brother Fidel in 2008, Castro has orchestrated economic and social reforms with broad-based impact, though to many Cubans and foreigners they appear slow to materialize. Not only are hundreds of thousands of Cubans now able to pursue free enterprise, but restrictions on cellphones and Internet have been eased and citizens feel more comfortable discussing Cuba’s problems.
Yet Castro has given little ground when it comes to changing Cuba’s single-party system or easing strict limits on media, assembly and political dissent. His government has also repeatedly chided Obama for saying he wanted to empower Cubans.
None of that has dissuaded Obama, who insists that any intransigence by Cuba’s government only proves why Cubans will be better off when they’re intimately exposed to American values.
“We felt that coming now would maximize our ability to prompt more change,” Obama told ABC News. “Particularly because this has been welcomed by the Cuban people with enormous popularity.”
To that end, Obama came to Havana hoping his visit would spur Castro to offer gestures of good faith and meaningful change, which would undermine critics who accuse Obama of kowtowing to an authoritarian government. Though Cuba approved U.S. hotel chains Starwood and Marriott to operate here and moved to lift fees on converting U.S. dollars, those steps pale in comparison to sweeping changes Obama has enacted to lift decades-old U.S. restrictions.
AP White House Correspondent Julie Pace and AP writers Michael Weissenstein and Peter Orsi contributed to this report.
35 responses to “Obama, Castro come face to face in historic meeting in Cuba”
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Something no other (W) president could do. Bring communications together. I guess Castro never trusted the others before Obama. This is what happens when you build walls. Take notes. Humans were never meant to separate and isolate each other.
While I have no problem in expanding our relationship with Cuba, I also believe this was primarily arranged as an opportunity for a president with a failed foreign relations record to salvage as much as he can in his last year.
This is really about 5 years in the making. The opennning to Cuba took a lot more time that people realize. there have been numerous official and unofficial missions to Cuba involving trade, education, and even sports and all the while behind the scenes, diplomacy was going on. Failed foreign policy? Hardly this is the guy who killed Osama and has killed more terrorist leaders than any other President. The deal with Iran, opening to Cuba and the tilt in defense posture to confront China will be his hall makrs. The Trans Pacific Partnership is more than a trade deal, its really an economic alliance that omits the Chinese and creates a new trading block that will rival China. Look for more manufacturing to set up in places like Vietnam and Malaysia instead of China as a result. Along the way he lead the movement to sanction Putin for his adventures into the Crimea and Ukraine. As a result Russia is an economic basket case, unable to support basic services, and it will be set back a decade in economic growth. The dude did a lot. Yo just might not have noticed it.
This is like handing over the keys to that drunk 16 year old and tell him to go chauffeur my kid, hoping he will find my trust in him so inspiring, that he sobers up on the spot.
Could happen. Could not. I’d wait about 10 years before patting Obama on the back, because right now, Iran and now Cuba have got all the chips and we’ve only got promises.
Foreign policy by unicorn flatulence and fairy dust. If we just show them (Cubans, Iranians, world-at-large) our “good liberal/progressive intentions” they will magically transform themselves from cut throat communist dictators and end-of-the-world religious fanatics. The world only works this way in Disney movies.
And so happy, happy, happy about those American jobs now exported to Vietnam instead of China. Whoopity do! (unless you’re on the receiving end of no job, no hope in a rust belt state here).
Killed record numbers of terrorists? Well, sure, now that he’s led himself from behind to conclude that ISIS isn’t actually the JV team.
You view the Obama presidency about as optimistically as the little boy, upon seeing a giant pile of manure, shouts “there has to be a pony in there some where!!!!!”
You’ll have to excuse Winston. He’s simply too dimwitted to understand that removing the embargo removes the #1 excuse the Castro regime has for why the economy is bad. He doesn’t get that we are actually helping keep the Castros in power. Uneducated folk simply cannot think more than 1 step ahead of them and cannot make the connections that even remotely educated people can.
That’s because they share political philosophies , i.e. dictatorships.
How’s that gun confiscation coming along? Also, I didn’t know that Garland was already appointed and sitting on the SCOTUS bench. I missed that memo. Since you know, Obama can do whatever he wants without any constraints of the COTUS.
Sarcasm off, you have no idea what you talk about.
Boss, easy to do when you bend over for the Cubans. Name me one thing they’ve agreed to do that makes this worthwhile? They still arrest and kill at will. It is a brutal dictatorship with a horrendous civil rights record.
Obama is hoping that by cowtowing to Castro, he’ll get them to “eventually” change their ways. Sort of what he is trying with Iran.
To be fair, we won’t know the success or failure of this plan until years later, but it is a huge gamble and right now, is only rewarding Cuba.
Have you read the Iranian nuclear agreement from a technical view (aka, not Fox News or Brietbart)? It’s hardly cowtowing.
Second, we know that the freer the market the freer the people. China is proving this right now as the political leadership is being forced to give against a growing tide of richer people who are demanding more freedoms. Compare that to Russia with its restricted economy where the people are not free. Or North Korea for example, there is a reason why the Kim Dynasty doesn’t want to reform it economy. South Korea is a good example of a former brutal dictatorship that underwent economic reforms for a much freer market and now has a vibrant democracy. What many people don’t understand is keeping the people poor allows their leaders to exert abnormal levels of power over them and the US embargo only feeds into that. Not to mention that ending the embargo takes away the #1 reason Cuba’s leaders claim for the economy’s poor shape. No embargo means they have to take responsibility for their own actions and when it is obvious to everyone that it isn’t anything the outside world is doing but their own leaders, expect another color revolution.
It is frightening how little people here understand of the long game much less any political economic developmental history of any country in the world.
Choyd, if I follow your logic, you wouldn’t impose sanctions on any nation. Treat them like my loving next door neighbor and hope they come around? That is a very naive way of looking at the world.
It has to be stick and carrot. Only carrot is a very dangerous game and you are banking on the other guy totally changing his tune simply because he now likes you and your way of life. That is a very naive way of looking at world politics. Tell me what circumstances would you be in favor of imposing sanctions? Anything?
As far as Iran, if you have read the agreement, you know as well as I do that it is nothing more than cover for Iran to continue as is except they can now sell oil. Even the inspections are a shame. Tell me how do you agree to given them weeks of notice before an inspection is conducted? It is laughable.
There is a difference between sanctions and doing nothing. I never said I wouldn’t impose any sanctions. I said I wouldn’t do a wholesale “we won’t do anything with you” the way that Winston goes about his fantasy land. Did I even mention sanctions at all?
Show me any nuclear or weapons inspection that allowed for on the spot, no notice inspections. Doesn’t exist. Even when South Korea and South Africa had programs and got caught or admitted it, we STILl didn’t impose a no notice inspection regime. Fox News has been pushing HUGE lies regarding that. A week or more for notice is normal and has been for decades.
Some of it timing. Maybe it the change in power. This is a very good thing.
Yes, it is all about timing. Most of Obama’s oversea trips are all about timing. Most of them are timed for when his kids are on school break so they can tag along on a taxpayer funded vacation.
Agree..I am so proud of our President for taking this initiative. It is so sad that we did not remain close to Cuba after 1959. It cost us dearly for the mistaken, even cruel policies toward Cuba we took.
When are you moving to Cuba.? Aloha
LOL ^5
Knock it off, sarge, eh?
Allie is correct that much pain and conflict resulted from the rise of American Imperialism and disrespect of non-anglo nations, like Cuba, Iran and… Hawaii. This caused much fear, mistrust and suffering on all sides. These power grabs, driven by corporate greed and permitted by white supremacist values, damaged the USA.
We are only now beginning to reemerge from those dark times. This is the big picture, Obama gets it, and understands that America’s greatness lies in righteousness not in combativeness and bullying.
At St. John the Baptist, Damien School, and the University of Southern California, I was taught it is BETTER to make your enemies into your friends versus making friends into your enemies. It had NOTHING to do with whatever else I did in life !!!
Some 40 odd years ago, I stated Ronnie Reagan would be looked upon as one of the GREAT US Presidents, to much of my office’s laughter !! President Obam will be looked upon the same, except for the ignorant bigots who will always be around.
The sad thing is, when we look at what Reagan actually did, the GOP wouldn’t even consider him a candidate even for membership.
Far too moderate, far too adult, and even he is far too nuanced (yes, even him) for the current party.
You can’t compare the two. Reagan didn’t give an inch to the USSR. Obama is bending over backward to appease Cuba. Also, frankly, it was easier for Reagan because Gorbachov was a willing partner with Reagan to westernize.
Obama has no willing partner in Castro. That’s why this is such a huge gamble.
Donald D said if he was POTUS and the country leader did not show up at the airport, he would have FIRED up the plane and fly home. How arrogant! IT’S MY WAY AND NO OTHER WAY. I WANT TO BE THE LEADER OF THE WORLD. I’M A BILLIONAIRE, MY FATHER WAS A BILLIONAIRE, I WAS BORN WITH A SILVER SPOON. I WILL MARRY ONLY FOREIGN BEAUTY QUEENS. I WILL ASSOCIATE WITH MAFIA AND MAKES SURE MY LAWYERS WILL KEEP THAT INFO AWAY FROM MY OPPONENTS,YOU KNOW, THE EDUCATED VOTERS.
Boss, I wouldn’t use the bi-polar Donald as a defense of Obama. You can find a much better comparison than that.
Actually its called protocol.
Note that the article makes no mention of the dissidents rounded up by the Cuban government before Obama’s arrival. What a triumph of foreign policy! Well, at least Obama supporter, Google Inc., gets rewarded, not to mention the other companies lining up to export jobs to yet another low wage hell hole.
So, by that logic we should have cut off welfare payments to Israel decades ago? Especially since how US taxpayers are funding Israeli welfare that allows millions of able bodied men to literally do no productive work as well as providing abortions on demand. Oops. Did I just let those dirty secrets out??
How about Egypt? And let’s not forget cutting trade with Japan based on how they treat women in the work place.
Know what, let’s just end all trade and all relationships with all nations because there is something we don’t like about how they do things, rather than acting like adults and incrementally working to make things better, because we’re infant brats and we want everything now! When do we want it, NOW! Are we willing to act like mature adults and compromise working towards a better future for everyone over time? NO! We want it now!
And you wonder why I have nothing but contempt for you.
Are you really comparing Israel and Japan to Cuba? Off course all countries do things we don’t like (including this one). But would you agree you need to draw the line somewhere?
I wouldn’t be opposed to opening up negotiations with Cuba if we had gotten SOMETHING in return. But we got nothing. Zero. This is a roll of the dice by Obama that Cuba will have a change of heart once they see there is nothing to fear from the west. As I said in earlier posts, we need to wait about a decade before we see what results from this.
My point is that we have partners that do things we do not like. Such as Egypt. Who has a more repressive regime than the Mubarak one. And let’s not forget about Pakistan who we worked with for decades and has a long history of what amounts to a secret police. They got billions in US tax dollars. We worked with Russia for decades despite their flagrant abuses of human rights. One of the great Russian-American successes is that the nuclear warheads aimed at American homes are now being used as fuel for electricity to power those homes.
My point is that we must work with how things are NOW, not live in a fantasy land where we pretend we can make all the decisions for everyone and they will simply agree to them. Is the Cuban regime terrible? Yes. But so was Park’s regime in South Korea. Infantile fools operate how Winston does with no knowledge of how things actually work.
The world is a dirty, unforgiving place where you rarely get what you want the first time and compromise is required. Not a fantasy land where we get to direct all of the pieces.
An adult accepts how the world works and works within that framework to better it. Not pout like a whiny child about how things aren’t going their way 100%. Again, why I have nothing but contempt for Winston.
AP is reporting:
“Cuba released dozens of political prisoners as part of its deal to normalize relations with Cuba, and Amnesty International said in its 2015/2016 report that it knew of no prisoners of conscience in Cuba.”
That’s more than nothing.
Couldn’t care less what you think. The post above is just another demonstrated failure of logic and perspective, of a strawman mentality, meaning a narrow over simplification linked to a false comparison. Makes no sense. A counter argument has to turn your view into something logical before it can be argued against. That is, I’d have to do your thinking for you while ignoring the juvenile insults. For example, with each of the foreign policy examples you mention above, we have compelling national interests which counterbalance or override pure principle. This is the way of the real world. Evidently, even though these national interests are well known, you elect to ignore them. With Cuba, as with other Obama foreign policy initiatives, the thinking and negotiation is just as weak as your thought processes, placing “hope and change” and “good intentions” and a soft-headed approach to negotiations in the forefront.
Oh, yeah. Your views actually don’t rise to a level deserving of contempt.
Did anyone see an argument there? All I see is hyperbole with no attempt to provide a rebuttal.
And we do have compelling interest in removing the embargo. I’ve already stated why we should remove it. You as usual, ignore my points because you cannot refute anything I’ve ever said.
You operate in a fantasy land where Obama is to blame for people getting old and we can always dictate terms with no one complaining.
You are a perfect example of why the DOE needs to be abolished.
Winston would have cut Israel off and kicked out their ambassador when Netanyahu broke protocol and barged in to address congress and criticize POTUS. Tough-talking Trump would have nuked.
Or maybe they are weasely hypocrites.
I am so exciting to be going to Cuba in a few weeks before it is Americanized. Not that that is a bad thing but I want to see it while there is still true culture and beauty. Some it will become way to touristy. I am glad that the President it there because I know they are fixing the walking paths and streets and it should be nice but still the same.
This same deal (i.e. recognition with absolutely no conditions – such as freeing a few tens of thousands of political prisoners, introducing basic civil liberties, etc…) was available to every US president since JFK. Why did this boob suddenly take the “deal”?
Does this dumb move qualify for O’s empty legacy sheet?