21 March 2016 - Obama's Historic Trip to Cuba
Obama Lands in Cuba With a Pledge to Listen to Its People
President Obama touched down in Cuba on Sunday, pledging to interact directly with the Cuban people and accelerate engagement between the United States and Cuba after more than a half-century of hostility.
He is the first sitting American president to visit in nearly nine decades, and Cubans of all political persuasions had eagerly awaited his arrival.
But hours before Air Force One landed at José Martí International Airport, the challenges inherent in normalizing relations with a Communist police state were laid bare, as dozens of arrests were made at the weekly march of Ladies in White, a prominent dissident group.
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Historic visit
Josh Lederman and Michael Weissenstein (ABC News, 21/03/2016)
For Obama, there's no better place than Havana to show that engagement can do more than isolation to bring about tangible change in the tiny communist nation. Yet for the Cubans, the glaring question is whether their own government is ready to prove the ambitious diplomatic opening is more than just talk.
Obama opened the first presidential visit to Cuba in nearly 90 years on Sunday when Air Force One touched down in Havana. Strolling through the grand cobblestoned plazas of Old Havana with his wife, Michelle, and daughters Sasha and Malia, Obama created an indelible image for both Cubans and Americans of the peacemaking that he and Castro have cautiously but doggedly pursued.
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Critics
Marisa Schultz (The New York Post, 21/03/2016)
The White House refused to say Sunday whether President Obama would be talking to Cuban officials about US fugitives who have found a refuge there, but critics blasted the historic trip Sunday for rewarding Cuba while convicted cop-killer Joanne Chesimard remains free and President Raul Castro’s human-rights abuses have worsened.
The White House declined to go into detail Sunday but said the fugitive issue is one “of long-standing concern to the United States that will be addressed in the broader context of normalizing relations between the United States and Cuba."
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Protests
Jonathan Wattss (The Guardian, 20/03/2016)
The protesters, from the Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) and other opposition groups, were bundled into buses and police vans after a shouting match with pro-Castro supporters during their usual weekly demonstration near the Santa Rita church.
“My son and his wife are in jail now. They all are. The police were very violent,” Glavys Fernández, the mother of leading opposition figure Antonio Rodiles, told the Guardian. “It’s the same every week. The oppression is very high.”
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21 March 2016 - Obama's Historic Trip to Cuba, La Clé des Langues [en ligne], Lyon, ENS de LYON/DGESCO (ISSN 2107-7029), mars 2016. Consulté le 22/11/2024. URL: https://cle.ens-lyon.fr/anglais/key-story/archives-revue-de-presse-2016/21-march-2016-obama-s-historic-trip-to-cuba