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| Obama, in Havana Speech, Says Cuba Has Nothing to Fear From U.S. | Obama, in Havana Speech, Says Cuba Has Nothing to Fear From U.S. |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| HAVANA — President Obama on Tuesday made a full-throated call for change and greater openness in Cuba’s autocratic government, making a direct plea to President Raúl Castro to loosen his grip on the economy and political expression or risk squandering the fruits of a historic thaw. | HAVANA — President Obama on Tuesday made a full-throated call for change and greater openness in Cuba’s autocratic government, making a direct plea to President Raúl Castro to loosen his grip on the economy and political expression or risk squandering the fruits of a historic thaw. |
| “It’s time to lift the embargo, but even if we lifted the embargo tomorrow, Cubans would not realize their potential without continued change here in Cuba,” Mr. Obama said, in a speech here that was broadcast live in Cuba. “If you can’t access information online, if you cannot be exposed to different points of view, you will not reach your full potential, and over time the youth will lose hope.” | |
| Addressing Mr. Castro, who listened raptly from a balcony in Havana’s Grand Theater, Mr. Obama said that Cuba had nothing to fear from the United States, even as he made a passionate argument for democracy and free-market principles. | Addressing Mr. Castro, who listened raptly from a balcony in Havana’s Grand Theater, Mr. Obama said that Cuba had nothing to fear from the United States, even as he made a passionate argument for democracy and free-market principles. |
| “I want you to know I believe my visit here demonstrates you do not need to fear a threat from the United States,” Mr. Obama said to Mr. Castro. “I am also confident that you need not fear the different voices of the Cuban people.” | “I want you to know I believe my visit here demonstrates you do not need to fear a threat from the United States,” Mr. Obama said to Mr. Castro. “I am also confident that you need not fear the different voices of the Cuban people.” |
| Delivered in the same building where Calvin Coolidge, the last sitting American president to visit Cuba, spoke 88 years ago, the speech was a striking moment in Mr. Obama’s push to clear away a half-century of hostility and isolation between the United States and Cuba, perhaps the final major foreign policy achievement of his presidency. | Delivered in the same building where Calvin Coolidge, the last sitting American president to visit Cuba, spoke 88 years ago, the speech was a striking moment in Mr. Obama’s push to clear away a half-century of hostility and isolation between the United States and Cuba, perhaps the final major foreign policy achievement of his presidency. |
| “I have come here to bury the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas,” the president said. “I have come here to extend a hand of friendship to the Cuban people.” | “I have come here to bury the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas,” the president said. “I have come here to extend a hand of friendship to the Cuban people.” |
| Mr. Obama drew some of the loudest applause when he told the audience he had asked Congress to rescind the trade embargo with Cuba and when he proclaimed it was time to “leave behind the ideological battles of the past.” | Mr. Obama drew some of the loudest applause when he told the audience he had asked Congress to rescind the trade embargo with Cuba and when he proclaimed it was time to “leave behind the ideological battles of the past.” |
| Benjamin J. Rhodes, Mr. Obama’s deputy national security adviser who led the secret talks that forged the thaw 15 months ago, said the speech was the president’s opportunity to place the changes and debate that have followed in context, particularly for Cubans here and in the United States. | Benjamin J. Rhodes, Mr. Obama’s deputy national security adviser who led the secret talks that forged the thaw 15 months ago, said the speech was the president’s opportunity to place the changes and debate that have followed in context, particularly for Cubans here and in the United States. |