Obama begins historic visit to Cuba

President Obama arrived in Cuba on Sunday afternoon, a journey of only 90 miles from U.S. shores that took more than half a century to complete.

Stepping off Air Force One under drizzling skies, the president held an umbrella over his wife, Michelle, as he was greeted by senior Cuban officials.

The Obamas, including the president’s two daughters and his mother-in-law, were met on the tarmac by Bruno Rodríguez, Cuba’s foreign minister, and Josefina Vidal, the head of the U.S. section of Cuba’s Foreign Ministry, as well as Jeffrey DeLaurentis, the senior U.S. diplomat in Cuba. The official welcoming session will take place Monday morning when Obama meets with Cuban President Raúl Castro at the presidential palace.

Obama’s trip here — the first by a sitting U.S. president since 1928 — comes amid high anticipation and anxiety on the island within both the Communist government and its political opposition. The government hopes the two-day visit will allow it to reap benefits without ceding control, while dissidents on the island want it to speed the pace of change.

An affirmation of his larger foreign policy vision, Obama hopes that reaching out to Cuba will encourage a generational evolution in one of the United States’ most bitter and long-standing adversaries. Just hours before his arrival, there were familiar signs that change will not come easily.

The Obama administration “knows that Fidel Castro is about to turn 90,” and that Raúl is only a few years behind, said Guillermo Fariñas, head of the United Anti-Totalitarian Forum. “A new generation is coming, with ever less moral authority” to claim it is promoting a popular revolution that took place long before most Cubans were born.

Raúl Castro has said he will step down in 2018.

Fidel Castro Is Out of Sight as Obama Visits Cuba

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