U.S. President Barack Obama’s address opened a whirlwind final day on the island that includes a meeting with Cuban dissidents and attendance at a baseball game featuring the country’s beloved national team.
“Havana is only 90 miles from Florida, but to get here we had to travel a great distance,” Mr. Obama said during his address at Havana’s Grand Theater.
Despite the enthusiasm in both the U.S. and Cuba about the new relationship, Mr. Obama acknowledged the deep differences that persist, including on human rights and democracy. With Cuban President Raul Castro looking on from a balcony, he called for citizens to be able to “speak their minds without fear” and pick their leaders in free and fair elections.
The President was cheered enthusiastically when he reiterated his call for the U.S. Congress to lift the economic embargo on Cuba, calling it an “outdated burden on the Cuban people”. The embargo is loathed on the island. During a joint appearance with Mr. Obama on Monday, Mr. Castro called it “the most important obstacle” to Cuba’s economic growth”.
U.S. hopes that restoring ties with Cuba will benefit its relations with other countries in Latin America, which have long bristled at the freeze with Havana. Critics of Mr. Obama’s policy say he’s given up too much with too little in return from Cuba, particularly on the issue of human rights. White House officials pointed to the President’s meeting with dissidents on Tuesday as a sign of Mr. Obama’s focus on Cuban repression, saying that allowing the gathering was a prerequisite for the visit.
