US President Barack Obama was received by Cuban President Raul Castro in Havana on Monday at the start of historic talks where the US leader will press his counterpart for economic and democratic refo
US President Barack Obama was received by Cuban President Raul Castro in Havana on Monday at the start of historic talks where the US leader will press his counterpart for economic and democratic reforms while hearing complaints about US sanctions.
Mr Obama arrived in Cuba on Sunday on a trip that comes 15 months after he and Mr Castro agreed to end five decades of Cold War-era animosity and work to normalise relations. On the first full day of his visit, he went to the heart of Cuba’s Communist system, laying a wreath in Revolution Square at the memorial to independence hero Jose Marti.
He moved on to the nearby Palace of the Revolution, where Mr Castro and his predecessor, older brother Fidel, have led Cuba’s resistance to US pressure going back decades. A US presidential visit to the inner sanctum of Cuban power would have been unthinkable before Mr Obama and Raul Castro’s rapprochement in December 2014.
Marti was a 19th century poet and writer whose activism was key to winning Cuba’s freedom from Spain and whose legacy was later adopted by Fidel Castro’s revolutionaries as a symbol of anti-imperialism.
Mr Obama and Mr Castro have met three times before, but Monday’s meeting was set to be the most substantial. Mr Obama and Mr Castro have deep differences to discuss as they attempt to rebuild the bilateral relationship.
As Mr Castro and Mr Obama stood shoulder to shoulder before their talks, a military band played the Cuban anthem and then the US anthem. After the music, the two leaders walked past a military honour guard with fixed bayonets.
The formal ceremony contrasted with Obama’s lower key arrival by Air Force One in Havana on Sunday. Mr Castro did not meet the plane and there were no military honours.
The US President is under pressure from critics at home to push Mr Castro’s government to allow dissent from political opponents and further open its economy.
Ahead of his talks with Mr Castro, Mr Obama announced a deal that Google has reached with the island. “One of the things that we’ll be announcing here is that Google has a deal to start setting up more WiFi and broadband access on the island,” Mr Obama told ABC News in an interview that aired on Monday. He gave no other details, and representatives for Google could not be immediately reached.
His administration hopes changes might also come at a Communist Party congress in April, but doubts any political opening will be forthcoming.
Still, Mr Obama has promised to talk about freedom of speech and assembly in Cuba. “I will raise these issues directly with President Castro,” he told the Cuban dissident group the Ladies in White in a March 10 letter.
Mr Castro has said Cuba will not waver from its 57-year-old revolution. Government officials say the US needs to end its economic embargo and return the Guantanamo Bay naval base to Cuba before the two nations can enjoy normal relations.
