The President of the United
States of America (USA), Barack Obama on Sunday broke a 88-year presidential
jinx by visiting Havana in Cuba on a state visit, reports ITRealms.
Also, ITRealms gathered that this came after
the last president of US visited Havana in 1928.
The Presidential jet,
AirForce One arrived at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport at about 4pm local time, with President Obama,
accompanied by his wife, Michelle and two daughters, Malia Ann and Natasha.
ITRealms
gathered that the plan to reconnect with Cuba came soon after Obama came to
power in 2008 and by 2009, Obama loosened travel restrictions on Cuban Americans
visiting their homeland.
Also ITRealms recalls
that under the President Bush’s administration, Cuban Americans could travel to
the island once every three years.
It was reported that if any Cuban had visited a sick
mother in Havana and returned home to the U.S. only to find out she died days
later, the Bush policy then, bars such a person from attending the funeral.
However, Obama changed that policy seven years ago, in
2009, thereby permitting Cuban Americans to go back and forth as they pleased.
Stepping down onto the red carpet in a light drizzle, Obama and his family, smiling broadly and with umbrellas in hand, were greeted by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. They then boarded a black armored limousine, with U.S. and Cuban flags fluttering from the hood, and headed out in their motorcade.
The three-day trip, the first by a U.S. president to Cuba in 88 years, is the culmination of a diplomatic opening announced by Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro in December 2014, ending a Cold War-era estrangement that began when the Cuban revolution ousted a pro-American government in 1959.
Obama, who abandoned a longtime U.S. policy of trying to isolate Cuba, wants to make his shift irreversible. But major obstacles remain to full normalization of ties, and the Democratic president's critics at home say the visit is premature.
Traveling with first lady Michelle Obama, her mother and their daughters, Sasha and Malia, the president was to visit the newly reopened U.S. Embassy and then play tourist on his first night on the Caribbean island, taking in the sights of Old Havana.
He will hold talks with Raul Castro – but not his brother Fidel, the revolutionary leader - and speak to entrepreneurs on Monday. He meets privately with dissidents, addresses Cubans live on state-run media and attends an exhibition baseball game on Tuesday.
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