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On first full day in Cuba, Obama meets with Castro and will address the public Cuba’s Raúl Castro meets Obama, calls on U.S. to leave Guantanamo
(about 3 hours later)
HAVANA — President Obama’s historic trip to Cuba officially began Monday as President Raúl Castro greeted him with a military honor guard and the playing of the U.S. and Cuban national anthems at the Revolutionary Palace here. HAVANA — President Obama hailed a “new day” in U.S.-Cuban relations and called for greater respect for human rights here on the first full day of his official visit, but his counterpart, Cuban President Raúl Castro, demanded that the United States leave its GuantánamoBay naval base and end its embargo before relations can be truly normalized.
Earlier, Obama stopped at the nearby Plaza of the Revolution, where he laid a wreath at the massive statue of 19th century independence hero José Martí, who gazes pensively down at the place where Fidel Castro later delivered stem-winding speeches denouncing U.S. imperialism. Standing beside President Obama, Castro welcomed him for what he called a “historic” visit here, and congratulated him for taking steps within his executive power to normalize relations.
Immediately after the wreath-laying, Obama was mobbed by Cuban and U.S. television reporters standing in the plaza. As he chatted, Secretary of State John F. Kerry and national security adviser Susan E. Rice hovered outside the media scrum before a smiling Obama made his way back into his security bubble. But relations will never truly be normal, Castro said after a meeting with Obama here, until the United States leaves Cuban territory and ends the sanctions that he said have done so much damage to the Cuban economy.
He walked, through a stiff breeze under cloudy tropical skies, to the nearby palace. After the official greeting, the two leaders headed to a palm-filled meeting room, where they engaged in animated chatter, through an interpreter, before the doors were closed for what was scheduled to be a two-hour conversation. Later, they will deliver statements at a public appearance together. [Here’s why Obama didn’t meet Fidel Castro in Cuba]
Unless the Cubans have a change of heart, there will be no joint news conference, despite a last-minute trip here last Friday by Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, to press the matter. “Much more can be done” between the two countries “if the embargo is lifted,” Castro said. “We recognize the position President Obama is in, and the position his government holds against the blockade, and that they have called on Congress to lift it.”
Obama’s schedule has taken him into the heart of Cuban government power, where no U.S. president has been before. The Martí monument is in a place as central to modern Cuban history as Moscow’s Red Square is to Russia’s. Over the decades, Soviet tanks and missiles rolled through during military parades, past the giant murals of fallen revolutionary heroes Ernesto “Che”Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos. Cuban government workers and students still dutifully file through every May Day. At the same time, he said, there remain “profound differences that will not disappear over our political model, democracy, human rights, social justice, international relations, peace and stability.”
The palace houses the offices of the Cuban president. It is a building that was almost surely targeted for annihilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, and long after that. The Cuban people, he said, will not “relinquish what they have gained through great sacrifice.”
[Did you immigrate from Cuba? Tell us your story] Obama began his response by saying that “for more than half a century, the sight of an American president in Havana would have been unimaginable. But this is a new day. Un nuevo dia.”
Later Monday, Obama will participate in a meeting between U.S. business and Cuban entrepreneurs, held at a cavernous beer brewery along the waterfront of Havana Bay. There is “one overarching goal” to normalization, Obama said, “advancing the interests . . . of both Cubans and Americans. That’s why I’m here.”
The place has a clear view of the former Texaco oil refinery, nationalized by the Castro government when its managers refused to process the first shipments of Soviet crude in 1960, setting off a tit-for-tat that ended with the 1960 embargo that Obama now seeks to lift. “We continue, as President Castro indicated, to have some very serious differences,” including on human rights, Obama said before outlining progress that two have made with new travel, agricultural and business agreements, as well as partnerships on health, education and the environment.
[U.S. rolls back restrictions on Cuba travel] Castro displayed some anger in a question and answer session following their statements. When CNN reporter Jim Acosta, the son of Cuban immigrants, asked about political prisoners, Castro responded: “If there are political prisoners, give me a list, right now. What political prisoners? Give me their names, and if there are political prisoners, they will be free by tonight.”
It was there, in Havana Harbor, where the USS Maine exploded in 1898, launching an American invasion of Spanish-occupied Cuba and the Spanish-American War that briefly turned the island into a U.S. possession.
In the evening, Obama will return to the palace for a state dinner hosted by Raúl Castro.
On Sunday, rain that started as soon as Air Force One touched down at José Martí International Airport complicated plans for the first family. But Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and their daughters plunged ahead, under umbrellas, with an evening tour of Old Havana. They later dined in a paladar, one of the privately owned restaurants the administration is promoting on a trip that is part traditional diplomacy and capitalist boosterism.
[Watch: Obama’s Cuban agenda]
Speaking to staff members at the U.S. Embassy on Sunday evening, Obama made a point of saying that the children who attended the session embodied the kind of generational shift he hopes will happen in the United States and Cuba in the years to come.
“That’s the future that we hope for — young American children, young Cuban children, by the time they’re adults, our hope is that they think it’s natural that a U.S. president should be visiting Cuba, they think it’s natural that the two peoples are working together,” he said.
But in the continuing political battles Obama left at home, Republicans who have
questioned his rapprochement with Cuba were quick to criticize the trip.
Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), a Cuban American and one of the top contenders for the GOP presidential nomination this year, wrote in Politico magazine that Obama’s approach is contrary to the strategy that presidents such as Ronald Reagan used to topple dictatorial regimes.
[Obama’s goal: ‘Support’ for Cubans seeking new paths][Obama’s goal: ‘Support’ for Cubans seeking new paths]
“This is why it is so sad, and so injurious to our future as well as Cuba’s, that Obama has chosen to legitimize the corrupt and oppressive Castro regime with his presence on the island,” Cruz wrote. While human rights activists say there are several dozen being held in Cuban prisons for political crimes, Cuba maintains that those prisoners said to be political have been convicted of common crimes.
GOP front-runner Donald Trump, who has said he is “fine” with closer Cuba ties, questioned why Castro was not at the airport for Obama’s arrival. “Wow, President Obama just landed in Cuba, a big deal, and Raul Castro wasn’t even there to greet him,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “He greeted Pope and others. No respect.” The Cubans rolled out full military honors for Obama, a display perhaps warranted by Castro’s long history as minister of defense from the 1959 revolution until he took over the presidency from his brother, Fidel Castro, in 2008.
Although it is not normal diplomatic practice for state visits in most of the world, Castro greeted Pope Francis at the Havana airport when the pontiff made his first visit here in September, just as Obama did when Francis came to Washington days later. Obama’s first stop of the day was at the Plaza of the Revolution, where he laid a wreath at the massive statue of 19th century Cuban independence hero Jose Martí, who gazes pensively down at the place where Fidel Castro for years delivered stem-winding speeches denouncing U.S. imperialism.
Obama was accompanied at the plaza by Cuban Vice President Salvador Mesa, who fought in the revolution and against U.S.-backed exile forces defeated in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. The two stood at attention as a military band played the Cuban and U.S. national anthems.
Immediately after the wreath-laying, Obama was mobbed by Cuban and U.S. television reporters standing in the plaza. He smiled and winked and began walking, through a stiff breeze under cloudy tropical skies, to the nearby palace.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry, hovering outside the media scrum, pronounced the trip “great” and the wreath-laying a “historic moment.” It was “pretty remarkable,” he said, “to hear the anthems here, side by side, in Havana with the president of the United States.”
At the palace, Obama first signed a guest book. “It was a great honor to pay tribute to José Martí, who gave his life for the independence of his homeland,” he wrote. “His passion for liberty, freedom and self-determination lives on in the Cuban people today.”
In the central hall of the palace, he was greeted by Raúl Castro, and the two smiled and shook hands warmly. It is was the fourth meeting between the leaders, who first greeted each other at the 2013 funeral of Nelson Mandela in South Africa. Following their December 2014 announcement that relations would be reestablished, they held a bilateral meeting last April at the Summit of the Americans, and again at the United Nations in September.
[Watch: Obama’s Cuban agenda]
After they walked past a military honor guard and listened again to the national anthems, Obama introduced Castro to a line of U.S. officials accompanying him, including Kerry, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, national security adviser Susan E. Rice, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes and White House press secretary Josh Earnest.
Castro then did the same for Obama with a line of Cuban officials, ending with Gustavo Machin, the deputy head of the Americas section of the Foreign Ministry. In 2002, Machin, a diplomat at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, was among six Cubans expelled from the United States after a Cuban spy was arrested inside the Defense Department.
Obama and Castro then headed to a palm-filled meeting room, where they engaged in animated chatter, through an interpreter, before the doors were closed.
In the evening Monday, Obama will return to the palace for a state dinner hosted by Castro.
First lady Michelle Obama, with an itinerary separate from the president’s, held a public forum Monday morning on the educational system here with 10 Cuban students.
Meanwhile, Major League Baseball took full advantage of the opportunity to recruit new Cuban players here by holding a news conference and a training session with Cuban youth players in advance of Tuesday’s game between the Cuban national team and the Tampa Bay Rays. Obama plans to attend the game before his departure later in the day to Argentina.
Obama’s schedule Monday took him into the heart of Cuban government power, where no U.S. president has been before. Although the Martí monument predates the revolution, it is in a place as central to modern Cuban history as Moscow’s Red Square is to Russia’s. Over the decades, Soviet tanks and missiles have rolled through during military parades, past the giant murals of fallen revolutionary heroes Ernesto “Che” Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos that Obama walked beneath Monday.
The Revolutionary Palace, where the Cuban president’s offices are located, was almost surely targeted for annihilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, and long after that.
[Obama’s entourage has business in mind][Obama’s entourage has business in mind]
Cuban television has covered much of Obama’s visit here live, and news of his arrival was at the top of the website of Granma, the Communist Party paper. In Old Havana, Cubans from the neighborhood and others allowed inside tight security chanted “USA” and cheered him. Later Monday, Obama will participate in a meeting between U.S. business and Cuban entrepreneurs, held at a cavernous beer brewery along the waterfront of Havana Bay.
On Tuesday, Obama will deliver a 40-minute address to the Cuban people, held at the National Theater and expected to be broadcast live here. Later that morning, one of the most tense moments of the visit will come when he is scheduled to hold a private meeting at the embassy with about a dozen of Cuba’s most prominent political dissidents. The place has a clear view of the former Texaco oil refinery, nationalized by the Castro government when its managers refused to process the first shipments of Soviet crude in 1960, setting off a tit-for-tat that ended with the 1960 U.S. embargo that Obama now seeks to lift.
Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report. It was there, in Havana Harbor, where the USS Maine exploded in 1898, launching an American invasion of Spanish-occupied Cuba and the Spanish-American War that briefly turned the island into a U.S. possession.
As a result, land at Guantanamo Bay that was captured by U.S. forces from Spain was turned into an American naval base and was leased to the United States by Cuba in perpetuity. The U.S. Navy has remained at Guantanamo ever since, and the base has become the site of a prison for detainees in the war on terrorism.
Nick Miroff in Havana contributed to this report.
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