President Barack Obama and his family are visiting Cuba. For the first time in 88 years, the sitting occupant of the White House is in the island. Immediately after arrival, the couple visited the US embassy in the island country, where Obama stressed the importance of this historic event. “This is a historic opportunity to engage directly with the Cuban people and to forge new agreements, commercial deals, to build new ties between our two peoples. And for me to lay out my vision for a future that’s brighter than our past.” Obama stressed. The US president went on to visit the Museum of the City of Havana, which exhibited, among other artworks, a portrait of US President Abraham Lincoln. Meanwhile, Republican Donald Trump denounced Obama’s visit to Cuba, saying he was outraged that the president had been met by Cuba’s foreign minister rather than the nation’s leader Raul Castro.
It is expected that Obama’s visit to Cuba will mark a new page in relations between the two countries after decades of hostility. The US completely severed diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961, two years after Cuban revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro came to power, having overthrown the pro-American government of Fulgencio Batista. The US imposed economic sanctions and a trade embargo on Cuba in 1962. The two countries announced the normalization of relations in December 2014 and restored diplomatic relations in July 2015.
