SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
President Obama has become the first U.S. president to visit Cuba since long before the Cuban embargo began:
President Barack Obama embarked on Sunday on a historic trip to Cuba where a Communist government that vilified the United States for decades prepared a red-carpet welcome. Lifting off from Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, Obama headed for Havana where the sight of Air Force One, America's iconic presidential jet, touching down on Cuban soil would have been unimaginable not long ago.
The three-day trip, the first by a U.S. president 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 internationally, now wants to make his shift irreversible. But major obstacles remain to full normalization of ties.
Ahead of Obama's arrival, plainclothes police blanketed the capital with security while public works crews busily laid down asphalt in a city where drivers joke they must navigate "potholes with streets." Welcome signs with images of Obama alongside Castro popped up in colonial Old Havana, where the president and his family will tour later on Sunday.
Also at The Guardian and live at The Washington Post. Voice of America reports that dozens of protesters were arrested hours before Obama's visit.
Extras:
How Canada played pivotal role in Obama's history-making trip to Cuba
How Raúl Castro broke with firebrand brother Fidel to jump start Cuba-U.S. relations
US hotel firm Starwood strikes historic Cuba deal
(Score: 5, Insightful) by number11 on Monday March 21 2016, @04:38AM
The thing is, before Castro, under Batista and the Mafia, Cuba was not a land of milk and honey either. Not that good government or freedom has ever been a criterion for US relations, the US is good friends with regimes like Saudi Arabia, and thugs like Sygman Rhee, Chiang Kai-shek, Papa Doc, and General Pinochet (who we helped put into power) were our friends. Today, the WHO ranks Cuba as having the second best health system in Latin America (after Dominica), only a few ranks lower than the USA. It has the highest literacy rate in the Americas, ahead of the USA. Back in the day, we made it a capital crime to teach the oppressed (slaves) how to read. So they're not doing everything wrong, even though they're a very poor country. AFAIK they don't have death squads, like Honduras, Mexico, Iraq today or (in the 1970s) Chile or Argentina or Nicaragua. Free? Cuba is not a good country to be a dissenter in. This seems to be a common trait of countries that feel themselves under attack.. remember, Cuba has never invaded the US, but the US has invaded Cuba. But I don't think they'll cut your head off for dissent, like Saudi Arabia will.
Revolutions hurt people, and innocent people are not exempt. I expect you were taught that during and after the American Revolution, loyalists (that is, people loyal to the existing government) often had to flee (mostly to Canada), leaving their property behind. Or maybe not, American schools tend to skip over history like that. Your grandparents got screwed over. Sorry about that. In America, we call that "collateral damage".
(Score: 2) by cmn32480 on Monday March 21 2016, @10:55AM
They won't cut off your head... but they will shoot you and/or torture you, then (if you aren't dead) toss your ass in a hard labor camp until the end of your natural life.
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 3, Touché) by number11 on Monday March 21 2016, @05:18PM
Yes, Guantanamo is in Cuba.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 21 2016, @01:03PM
I'd be interested to know what % of people in what became the US were strong loyalists. I would guess revolutionaries were about 1%, people who didn't care under what king they lived 70%, vocal loyalist supporters 20% and vocal revolution supporters ~10%.