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Obama, Castro hail 'new day' for US-Cuba relations

Obama said the days of heavy-handed US intervention in the island's affairs were over.

By :  sadhguru jaggi vasudev
Update: 2016-03-21 07:49 GMT
US President Barack Obama waves from Air Force One as he arrives accompanied by first lady Michelle Obama at Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, Cuba. Obama became the first US President to visit the island in nearly 90 years.
As part of the diplomatic breakthrough in 2014, Cuba released 53 prisoners that the U.S. government considered political prisoners. But the dissident Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation says 79 are still behind bars, among about 40 held for peaceful political protest.
Obama said direct flights from the United States would start this year. He said regular tourism to Cuba could happen very soon.
Obama, the first U.S. president to visit Cuba in 88 years, agreed in 2014 to improve relations with the former Cold War foe but he is under pressure at home to push Castro's government to allow political dissent and to further open its Soviet-style economy.
Castro offered Cuba's recipe for better relations, saying the United States needs to lift its 54-year-old trade embargo on the island and hand back the Guantanamo Bay base to Cuba.
Castro said Cuba has a strong record on rights such as health, access to education and women's equality. His government criticizes the United States on racism, police violence and the use of torture at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.
Castro countered that no country meets all international rights but appeared uncomfortable as he made the rare step of taking questions from journalists in a country where the media is state controlled.
America believes in democracy. We believe that freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and freedom of religion are not just American values but are universal values, says Obama in a joint news conference with Castro.
Both men's remarks were broadcast live on Cuban state television from Cuba's Palace of the Revolution in a room draped with the Stars and Stripes and the Cuban flag.
Obama praised Castro for openly discussing their differences but he said a full flowering of the relationship would happen only with progress on the issue of rights.
U.S. President Barack Obama pushed Cuba to improve human rights during his historic visit to the Communist-led island on Monday, publicly sparring with President Raul Castro who showed flashes of anger and hit back at U.S. double standards.
Obama, Michelle and their daughters Sasha and Malia clutched umbrellas to shield themselves from drizzle as they descended the steps to the tarmac.
Obama hopes that a host of incremental and seemingly technical steps will open Cuba's economy, transforming the island economically and politically, backers of the policy say.
Obama is looking to leave a historic foreign policy mark in his final year in office.
“This is a historic visit,” declared Obama, who was to meet Monday with Cuban President Raul Castro, the lesser known brother of Fidel, who handed over the leadership in 2008.
Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and their daughters Sasha and Malia look at a statue of Cuban independence hero Carlos Manuel de Cespedes during their visit to Old Havana, Cuba.
Protestors hold a banner that reads in Spanish: \"Obama, traveling to Cuba is not fun. No more human rights violations,\" on a street corner Havana, Cuba.
Just hours before Obama's arrival there was a reminder of the communist state's darker side.
Just hours before Obama's arrival there was a reminder of the communist state's darker side.
Barack Obama and Michelle Obama greet children and families of embassy personnel during an event at Melia Habana Hotel, in Havana, Cuba.
Obama was not only the first sitting American president to visit Cuba since Fidel Castro's guerrillas overthrew the US-backed government of Fulgencio Batista in 1959, but the first all the way back to Calvin Coolidge in 1928.
As Air Force One touched down in Havana, the US president cheerfully began the landmark trip by tweeting in local slang: “Que bola Cuba?” -- or “What's up?”
Obama, Michelle and their daughters Sasha and Malia clutched umbrellas to shield themselves from drizzle as they descended the steps to the tarmac.
Obama said the days of heavy-handed US intervention in the island's affairs were over.

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