What's Up Cuba?; Obama Arrives in Havana

Barack Obama is the first U.S. President to officially visit Cuba in nearly 90 years. This trip comes as Havana and Washington return to diplomatic relations. At the start of his two-and-a-half-day visit to Cuba, Obama used a common colloquial phrase from the country, tweeting in Spanish: "What's up Cuba?" He continued, "We just landed (at the airport), and I look forward to meeting directly with the Cuban people and hearing their voices." Before his trip to Cuba, he stated in his Nowruz message that this visit symbolizes that after decades of distrust, old adversaries can embark on a new path. The Cuban Foreign Minister welcomed Barack Obama, who traveled to Havana with his wife Michelle and their two daughters, at the airport. Official meetings will begin on Monday. Obama headed from the airport to the capital and told the staff of the recently reopened U.S. embassy, "With an embassy here, we can better promote our values and support our interests, and we will have a better understanding of the desires of the Cuban people." The U.S. President emphasized that his visit to Cuba is "historic." This trip marks the first visit by a U.S. President to Cuba since 1928. Relations between the two countries deteriorated following the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and the rise of Fidel Castro, Raul Castro's brother, to power, leading to a complete break in 1961. Obama is scheduled to meet Raul Castro at the "Palace of the Revolution" in Cuba's capital on Monday, but no meeting with Fidel, the leader of the Cuban Revolution who is now 89 years old, is planned. Reports indicate that Fidel Castro views his brother's new policies to revive relations with Washington with skepticism and pessimism. Raul Castro has called for the complete lifting of sanctions and the return of Guantanamo Bay, a U.S. military base under U.S. control since 1903. Obama's trip to Cuba does not mean that all problems will be solved or that all sanctions imposed against Cuba will be lifted, especially since the majority in the U.S. Congress is held by Republicans, many of whom have expressed their opposition to the current normalization process. Additionally, issues such as freedom of expression, pressures on political and civil activists, and human rights advocates in Cuba continue to cast a shadow over relations between the two countries.