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Version 7 Version 8
Obama Says Cuba Embargo Does ‘Not Serve Our Interests’ Cuba Meeting Between Obama and Castro Exposes Old Grievances
(about 3 hours later)
HAVANA — President Obama said Monday that he was confident the trade embargo on Cuba would end, a move that President Raul Castro, standing beside him, endorsed. HAVANA — President Obama stood beside President Raúl Castro on Monday and declared a “new day” of openness between the United States and Cuba, but old grievances and disputes over human rights marred a groundbreaking meeting and underscored lingering impediments to a historic thaw.
“What we did for 50 years did not serve our interests or the interests of the Cuban people,” Mr. Obama said. “We continue to have serious differences, including on democracy and human rights,” he said, noting that if Cuba made changes on those fronts it would help persuade Congress to lift the embargo. The two presidents, meeting at the Revolutionary Palace for the first such official contact between their two governments in more than a half-century, engaged in a frank and at times awkward exchange with each other and reporters. Mr. Obama at turns prodded Mr. Castro to submit to questions during an extraordinary 55-minute news conference.
Mr. Obama and Mr. Castro spoke to reporters and took questions Monday afternoon after their historic meeting. Mr. Castro had not done so before, but the American side had been eager for him to permit questions this time. Standing at lecterns in a cavernous granite-walled hall in front of Cuban and American flags, the two leaders traded criticism of each other’s countries even as both said they were committed to continuing on the path to normalizing relations.
That led to a few tense moments. In a response to a question about the existence of political prisoners in Cuba, Mr. Castro claimed there were none. “Give me a list of political prisoners and I will release them,” he said. “Give me a list of the political prisoners and I will release them immediately,” Mr. Castro said, asked by a reporter about dissidents his government has arrested. “Just mention the list. What political prisoners?”
With this visit, both men have ventured into diplomatic territory that had eluded their predecessors, amid mutual mistrust dating from Theodore Roosevelt’s charge up San Juan Hill to the Cuban missile crisis and beyond. Profound differences still divide the two nations economically and politically, including the United States trade embargo and Cuban human rights issues. Human rights groups quickly produced rosters, distributed over email and social media, of people they said had been imprisoned in Cuba for demonstrating against or otherwise challenging Mr. Castro’s government.
American officials said Mr. Obama had planned to raise the issue of Cuba’s repressive tactics, on display in the days leading up to the president’s visit as the government detained dissidents who could cause a diversion from the official script. Mr. Castro sought to turn the human rights criticism on the United States, arguing that countries that do not provide universal health care, education and equal pay are in no position to lecture Cuba. He also said Guantánamo should be returned to Cuba.
The Cubans, accustomed to exerting tight control over everything that happens on the island, have spent weeks admonishing citizens against disrupting Mr. Obama’s visit or questioning government authority during the trip. “It’s not correct to ask me about political prisoners,” Mr. Castro said.
In a colorful welcome ceremony at the Palace of the Revolution before the talks began, Mr. Obama and Mr. Castro shook hands warmly before they strolled amicably past an honor guard and assembled dignitaries. Mr. Obama said he had pressed the Cuban president in their meeting over Cuba’s treatment of dissidents and reaffirmed that he would meet with some dissidents privately on Tuesday. But he also assured Mr. Castro that the United States had no intention of dictating his country’s future.
Mr. Obama appeared to make a point of walking over to the Cuban military band leader as the ceremony concluded to congratulate him on its performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” — a national anthem that is unlikely to be in its repertoire. “I affirm that Cuba’s destiny will not be decided by the United States or any other nation,” Mr. Obama said. “Cuba is sovereign and rightly has great pride, and the future of Cuba will be decided by Cubans, not by anybody else.”
“Good job,” Mr. Obama was overheard saying. “At the same time, as we do wherever we go around the world, I made it clear that the United States will continue to speak up on behalf of democracy, including the right of the Cuban people to decide their own future,” Mr. Obama added.
Mr. Obama also shook hands with an array of American and Cuban officials, who were lined up on opposite sides of the long, narrow room. The president went a step further, in comments likely to be seized upon by critics of his push to pursue an opening with Cuba, conceding that the United States must face up to the criticisms Mr. Castro unleashed.
The choreography of Monday’s session has preoccupied the American and Cuban governments for weeks. Both are determined to showcase a new dynamic of friendship and engagement while insisting they have conceded none of their principles. “I actually welcome President Castro commenting on some of the areas where he feels that we’re falling short, because I think we should not be immune or afraid of criticism or discussion as well,” Mr. Obama said.
Monday’s session was the presidents’ third face-to-face meeting since the new policy was announced in December 2014. The news conference was a striking display of warmth on a day that was dominated by the symbolism of the first tentative openings between Cuba and the United States since the Cold War.
They met and shook hands in April 2015 at a summit meeting of Western Hemisphere nations in Panama City, and they spoke in September on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, when Mr. Obama told Mr. Castro he would like to visit this year if the conditions were right. Mr. Obama said he expected to see the embargo lifted, something Mr. Castro called “the most important obstacle to our economic development and the well-being of the Cuban people.”
Before his talks with Mr. Castro on Monday, the president laid a wreath at the memorial to José Martí, a journalist and poet whose ideals are invoked with zeal in both Miami and Havana. “We agree that a long and complex path still lies ahead,” Mr. Castro said, smiling warmly at Mr. Obama at times, even when the American president teased his Cuban host about the Castro family’s penchant for stem-winding speeches. “What is most important is that we have started taking the first steps to build a new type of relationship, one that has never existed between Cuba and the United States.”
Martí is that rare ancestor whom both sides of a feuding family claim as their own. Or, as Achy Obejas, the Cuban-American novelist, put it: “He’s a little like the Bible: Whatever you want to find support for, there’s usually a little something in his work that will reflect your desire.” There were awkward moments as well, with both presidents pushing each other outside their comfort zones. Mr. Obama, who was determined to mark the occasion with a news conference — something Mr. Castro seldom if ever does — prodded the Cuban leader to submit to journalists’ questions.
“Want some really gripping anti-imperialist words implicating the U.S. as a bully? Got it,” she said. “Want some poetry exalting individual freedom? Got it. A little anti-racism? No problem. Warnings about dictators? Here it is.” After Mr. Obama finished answering a question from Andrea Mitchell, the NBC News correspondent, he urged Mr. Castro to do so as well.
In Havana on Monday, many Cubans still seemed uncertain about whether they had permission to try to see Mr. Obama, never mind express a point of view. Cubans all over the city seemed to be constantly asking where Mr. Obama would be — and then not going. “It’s up to you,” Mr. Obama told Mr. Castro. “She’s one of our most esteemed journalists in America, and I’m sure she’d appreciate just a short, brief answer.”
Outside the venue at the edge of Old Havana where the president was scheduled to meet with American business leaders and Cuban entrepreneurs in the afternoon, most of the people waiting for his arrival were foreign tourists. Mr. Castro did answer Ms. Mitchell’s query about human rights, scolding her that the question was unfair.
When asked questions about Mr. Obama’s visit, several Cubans outside a small store with a view of the location turned away without saying a word. State security agents — some uniformed, others wearing jeans and mirrored sunglasses — simply watched and listened. At the conclusion of the news conference, the two presidents joined hands in what appeared to be a cross between a handshake and the raising of a revolutionary fist; Mr. Obama held out his arm awkwardly and it ended up as neither.
Mr. Obama began his day at the memorial to the Cuban journalist and poet Jose Marti, whose ideals are invoked with zeal in Miami and Havana.
A Cuban military band played “The Star-Spangled Banner” under a billowing Cuban flag as the American president and a Cuban Politburo member appeared side by side, flanked in the distance by huge sculptured portraits of Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, the revolutionaries who were intimates of Fidel Castro.
During his carefully stage-managed visit this week, Mr. Obama does not plan to meet with Fidel Castro, 89, the former president who is Raùl’s older brother.
In Havana on Monday, many Cubans still seemed uncertain about whether they had permission to try to see Mr. Obama, never mind express a point of view. Cubans all over the city seemed to be constantly asking where Mr. Obama would be.
In Parque Central in Havana, Mr. Obama’s visit touched off talk of politics, freedom, race and the scene of an American president at Revolution Plaza near an image of Che Guevara.
“I see the Cubans in the United States talking bad about Obama because he was standing with the image of Che behind him,” said Alfredo Calderon, 83, a retired musician who now works as a custodian. “I don’t see it as bad.”
He continued: “I have to admit, I am 83 years old and I have seen a lot happen. I did not think I would see that.”
In a nation that stifles dissent, the men in the square were quick to shout out the kinds of things they hope Mr. Obama will bring to Cuba. “Freedom of speech!” one man shouted. “Freedom of expression!” another echoed. They shook their heads in agreement.
“We want change,” said Angel Maturrell, a small-business owner. “Change. Change. Change. All kinds. Any kind. We are tired of waiting.”
A few blocks away, Cubans and foreigners found themselves running into American lawmakers and V.I.P.s touring the city.A few blocks away, Cubans and foreigners found themselves running into American lawmakers and V.I.P.s touring the city.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont was spotted by the cathedral; Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York was also easy to find. Walking the streets with a single aide, wearing a seersucker suit and a Tampa Bay Rays baseball cap, Mr. Rangel said he could not have been happier. He spent decades in Congress working to end the Cuban embargo.Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont was spotted by the cathedral; Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York was also easy to find. Walking the streets with a single aide, wearing a seersucker suit and a Tampa Bay Rays baseball cap, Mr. Rangel said he could not have been happier. He spent decades in Congress working to end the Cuban embargo.
He said he was confident that restored relations would yield benefits for Cubans and Americans.He said he was confident that restored relations would yield benefits for Cubans and Americans.
”I never knew we could bring such a crack in the wall,” he said. “We’re creating the right conditions for when change really comes.” “I never knew we could bring such a crack in the wall,” Mr. Rangel said. “We’re creating the right conditions for when change really comes.”