Summary
We’re going to close our live coverage of the first day Barack Obama’s historic trip to Havana, the first by a US president to Cuba in nearly 90 years, and a pivotal moment for Raúl Castro and the communist government that has ruled the island for almost six decades.
- Barack Obama met with Raúl Castro in the Palace of the Revolution, where they held the first bilateral talks in the history of the US and post-revolution Cuba.
- Castro demanded the US end its embargo and return Guantánamo Bay during a joint press conference after the talks. He also warned against efforts to foment dissent or encourage democracy: “No one should demand the Cuban people renounce their freedom and sovereignty.”
- He also denied that Cuba imprisons political dissidents. “Give me a list and I’ll release them,” he angrily answered a question. “If we have those political prisoners they will be released before tonight ends.”
- Obama promised “the embargo’s going to end,” though he couldn’t say when Congress would come around to his way of thinking. “The reason is logic. The reason is what we did for 50 years did not serve our interests or the interests of the Cuban people.”
- “We had a very frank conversation around issues of democracy and human rights,” Obama said. “What this comes down to is I have faith in people,” he added, arguing that through diplomacy, business and travel Americans and Cubans “will recognize that people are people. And in that context, I believe that change will occur.”
- Castro vocally criticized the US’s record on human rights and defended Cuba’s. He noted that Cuba ensures free healthcare and education and equal pay for women. Asked about human rights, the Cuban president argued that no country in the world guarantees all rights or freedoms. He praised Obama, however, and said that he hoped for “civilized coexistence” despite their differences.
- Obama later made a thinly veiled critique of socialism, saying: “there are some economic models that just don’t work.” He gave credit to the Cuban government for cracking open a private sector and urged entrepreneurs to work with the many Americans rushing to do business on Cuban shores.
- The US president also said he would meet with Fidel Castro, ABC News reported after a private interview. If the former revolutionary’s health permitted it, Obama said, he would want to close that chapter of cold war history.
Updated
Obama is using this business event to make a not-so-veiled critique of socialism.
“There are some economic models that just don’t work,” he says. “That’s not an economic opinion of myself there are some economic models that have had some great difficulty in how they operate.”
“It gets harder and harder” for those economies to sustain themselves, he says. He has not said the words “socialism” or “communism” once during this event, or today’s public remarks, by my reckoning.
Private sector business “can be compatible with good education and free healthcare”, he says. He adds that the US wants to see Cuba succeed on these terms.
Obama: I would meet Fidel Castro
Producers for ABC News, the only media organization that was awarded an interview with Barack Obama during his Havana trip, have revealed that the president would meet Fidel Castro if the logistics worked out.
They’re saving the details for the network’s nightly news broadcast.
BREAKING: Obama tells @DavidMuir he'd happy to meet Fidel Castro to close Cold War chapter but given health no idea if realistic @WNTonight
— devindwyer (@devindwyer) March 21, 2016
They also got an answer from the president about Raúl Castro’s defiance in the face of the American press, to whom he defended Cuba’s record on human rights and political prisoners.
.@POTUS tells @DavidMuir the (awkward) presser evidence of progress bc 1st time Raúl Castro in front of US press & Cuban press & answered Q
— Serena Marshall (@SerenaMarsh) March 21, 2016
Updated
Brian Chesky, the American co-founder of Airbnb, makes a comment about expanding business in Cuba. Obama is effusive with his praise for Chesky, and more generally about the business opportunities of the internet.
“He’s one of our outstanding young entrepreneurs. He had an idea, and acted on it, and in this global economy it can take off,” Obama says. “Brian’s a good example of the power of the internet and why having a good internet infrastructure is so important.”
He talks about how Airbnb uses photos and user and credit ratings to better ensure good service between renters and lodgers. “It’s a tool to build trust and to allow this transaction to take place.”
“If you imagine what could be done with broader internet access,” he says, “Brian gives you a good example of what could be unleashed.”
Updated
Journalist Soledad O’Brien now joins the president on stage – she’s going to moderate a discussion with businesspeople and Obama. He said a moment ago that he wants to hear from the Cuban people – who’ll now get their chance to ask him questions, too.
A barber who owns a small business, nicknamed Pepito (didn’t catch his last name), says he wants to share his personal vision. He talks about how in recent years barbershops like his own have shifted from state-ownership to private. But he’s got good things to say about the Cuban government, too.
“I am convinced that social benefits make economic benefits even greater,” he says. “In the end we all win.”
Obama starts off with a little sympathy: “My barber is very important to me. Michelle’s hairdresser – if she had to choose between her hairdresser and me, I don’t know.”
He comments a little on Pepito’s idea of business working hand in hand with government and society, to the mutual benefit of all.
“A barbershop, the beauty salon, that’s often the center of a neighborhood,” Obama says, “so congratulations on not only starting your business but seeing it as a social enterprise.”
“There was an interesting conversation that I had with President Castro around this issue,” he continues, regarding the government reforms to allow more open business. “He started to point out as people start to get their own income, owning their own property, their own business, the question starts to come up” about paying taxes.
Castro noted, Obama says, that “nobody likes paying taxes, especially if they’re not used to paying taxes. And I assured him that’s a universal trait.”
He links this back to the new organizations meant to foster business under the new rules of Cuba’s centralized economy: “That gives you a sense of how some of these institutions are going to have to start evolving over time.”
“It’s the spirit of youth, talented and driven young people ready to make your mark on the world,” Obama continues, adding that “more Americans using the dollar mean there will be more” purchases as well.
He praises Cuba’s education system, saying that the high literacy among Cubans is a sign of “an investment that’s been made here in Cuba”.
Then he compliments “your ingenuity, who else could keep almendrones running?”
Almendrones is the Cuban nickname for their antiquated cars, many of which are relics of the 1950s.
“You’ve got more than 300 million potential American customers and one of the world’s most dynamic cities, Miami, right next door,” Obama adds. “America wants to be your partner.”
He says General Electric will sell more products in Cuba, Cleaver is going to start a tractor factory, Starwood “will become the first US hotel that operates here in more than 60 years, and Marriott will be here soon as well.”
He again calls on Congress to lift the embargo, which gets applause and round of whoops from the crowd. “We believe in the Cuban people,” he says, adding that he heard from an entrepreneur who told him Cuba just needs a chance for business to flourish.
“As your friend and as your partner the United States of America wants to help you get that chance.”
Obama speaks at business event
Barack Obama is speaking at an event in Havana (a brewery, specifically) before a number of American and Cuban entrepreneurs, businessmen and women and officials.
“In many ways the history of Cuba can be understood through the labor of Cuban people,” he says.
“For centuries under colonial rule and then for decades” under the influence of American businesses, he continues “the toil was used to enrich other people rather than” the Cuban people. He then observes – without saying the words communism or socialism – that Cubans were not allowed to own their own businesses for decades.
“In recent years that’s begun to change. To its credit the Cuban government has adopted some reforms,” he says. “Cubans can now buy and sell properties,” he continues it’s easier for Cubans to travel, to buy a cellphone, for farmers to start cooperatives and for families to start their own business.”
He talks a bit about the growing presence of American companies in the modern era, which are making it easier for business. He name-checks lodging service Airbnb, saying it’ll help homeowners rent out rooms and meal services, like the one his family had yesterday. “The food was really good, even if my Spanish is not that great.”
This is the second time he has praised that meal today. He goes back to the theme of a more open private sector. “That’s the power of entrepreneurship, it’s self-determination, the power to choose your own future.”
Updated
It’s not all diplomacy and history in Havana. It’s also skateboarding.
My colleague Laurence Mathieu-Léger met four Cuban skateboarders in the city who talked about the rigid ways of Cuban society, about art and protest, and the freedoms (including to skateboard) abroad. “One of the things that’s most clear to me is that I want to keep skateboarding, just not here.”
Back out in Havana, Lisa O’Carroll has found wifi in one of the few places around the city that provides it … a public park.
Teenagers have swept into the park to take advantage of its free internet, followed by journalists who have strayed from the presidential press pack. A German journalist, Simon Kiesche, is here sending his video of Barack Obama from the park. “The system that you can only get Internet in a public park I have never seen before and I have worked all over the world.”
Until last year, internet was largely only available to tourists, officials, or through an extremely expensive pay-per-minute system in designated locations. Many of the new US initiatives are aimed at opening the country to telecoms, and Obama declared earlier today: “In the 21st century countries cannot be successful unless their citizens have access to the internet.”
Most Americans support ending the embargo with Cuba, the Pew Research Center has found, in a report just published about the rapprochement. It’s findings are summarized below:
- A survey from July 2015 found that 73% of Americans approved of new relations, and a similar share said they would favor ending the 56-year trade embargo.
- But Americans are skeptical about democracy’s chances in Cuba, at least in the short-term. “Fewer than half of those surveyed said they thought Cuba would become more democratic over the next several years,” the report notes. Conservatives were more skeptical, Democrats most optimistic, and 49% of everyone said Cuba would stay “about the same” for a while.
- For the first time, most Americans have a favorable view of Cuba. A” Gallup survey conducted in February found that 54% of Americans had a favorable view of Cuba,” Pew wrote, way up from 10% who liked Cuba in 1996.
- The Cuban American community is changing. Young Cuban Americans increasingly support the thaw, and there are more native Cuban Americans and Cuban immigrants than ever, shifting opinion toward more congenial relations.
- The decision to restore relations has strong support in Latin America. A majority across five countries surveyed last spring said they approved of the thaw. Nearly 80% in Chile, 78% in Argentina, 77% in Venezuela, 67% in Brazil and 54% in Mexico.
The White House press corps seizes on a surreal moment in modern diplomacy: a few seconds of photo-op staging not meant for the internet era.
Extraño momento entre @BarackObama y Raúl Castro al término de la conferencia de prensa conjunta en La Habana pic.twitter.com/9b6kIAMnb9
— Teresa de Miguel (@tdemiguel_AP) March 21, 2016
Updated
The presidential visit now diverges for a few hours. First lady Michelle Obama is meeting with young Cubans “to talk about their experiences and hopes for the future”, according to the American embassy in Havana – which is still a novelty there.
Michelle Obama se reunió con jóvenes cubanas para hablar de sus experiencias y esperanzas para el futuro pic.twitter.com/UzxdEDmfmm
— Embajada EE.UU. Cuba (@USEmbCuba) March 21, 2016
And Barack Obama will head to an event meant to encourage business and entrepreneurs, at which Spanish American chef Jose Andres has been spotted by a member of the White House press corps.
That's @chefjoseandres on stage here in Havana at the entrepreneur summit Obama's about to attend pic.twitter.com/j8Wx4BIkNT
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) March 21, 2016
While the presidents are back on the move – Barack Obama to meet entrepreneurs at an event in Havana, Raúl Castro to ready for a massive state dinner this evening – my colleague Lisa O’Carroll has taken to the streets to talk with Cubans about their country’s future.
The 56-year old blockade has possibly given Cuba unique global status as the only McDonalds-free zones in the world. Despite the burgeoning tourist trade, and the possibility of up to 30 daily flights from the US later this year, there is no virtually no evidence of American culture apart from 1950s Buicks, Plymouths and other motor relics of the pre-revolution days.
There are no fast food chains, no Starbucks, no Coca-Cola (although Coca Cola’s Sprite seems to have sneaked through trade barrier).
American credit cards don’t work and tourists hoping the US dollar is the preferred currency get a rude shock when charged high fees to change them into pesos.
“There is one word that identifies our country since 1868, and that is ‘independence’,” said the concierge at one of the luxury hotels frequented by Americans.
“It is as simple as that,” he said. “Maybe it will be a good thing that McDonalds doesn’t open. It will be the first step towards our death.”
He doesn’t expect overnight change flowing from the lifting of trade restrictions and the normalisation of Cuban-American relations Obama visit. Evidently proud of his country’s resistance to succumb to America, he says Obama is just another president visiting Cuba “like Francois Hollande”.
“It is not the Berlin Wall,” he added. “Maybe Russia got Coca Cola and McDonald’s at the end of the Cold War. Today we enjoy Obama’s visit. Maybe the Americans come here and try to invest in our economy but it is important to remember Fidel Castro is still alive.
“He and Raoul have many smart people around them and they will stay in charge. This is our country and Obama’s visit is only a first step to solve our relationship,” he said. “We are in no rush.”
Cuba has spent all week putting on its Sunday best for Obama with fresh Tarmac on all the main roads – that are usually free of traffic – in the city centre.
Just around the corner, the typical Cuban home is equally as grand and elegant, neoclassical or colonial in design, but after almost 60 years of neglect virtually falling down.
The Huffington Post’s Jennifer Bendery does a quick fact-check of Raúl Castro’s claim that there aren’t actually any political prisoners in Cuba – or at least that he’d have to look into it if someone would give him a name.
The Cuban Observatory for Human Rights estimated that, as of the end of last year, there were at least a few dozen political prisoners in Cuba.
Just yesterday the Guardian saw a political protest forcibly broken up by police, and few dozen people bundled into police vans, as well.
Between 27-70 political prisoners in Cuba at the end of 2015, per Freedom House, an indie watchdog group. pic.twitter.com/poREgWJ5q2
— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) March 21, 2016
Castro defends Cuba's record on human rights
Castro answers a question about Cuba’s compliance with international standards of human rights.
“There are 61 international instruments to recognize how many countries in the world comply with all the human rights and civil rights,” he sys.
“What country complies with them all? Do you know? I know. None. Not a single country. Some countries comply with some rights, others apply others.”
He says that Cuba complies with 40, and that he doesn’t believe human rights issues should be “politicized”.
“Do you think that there’s a more central right than to healthcare? So that millions of children don’t die for the lack of a vaccine or treatment?” he asks.
“Do you agree with the right to free education, for all those born everywhere in the world? I think many countries don’t think this is a human right.”
He boasts about Cuba’s healthcare system, saying that pregnant women go to the hospital days before they’re due to ensure a safe delivery – “it doesn’t matter whether they live in distant places or the country.”
Then Castro points out that Cuba has laws about equal pay regardless of gender: “In Cuba women get the same pay for the same work. I can give you many, many examples.
“I don’t think we can use the argument of human rights for political confrontation. That’s not fair. That’s not correct. I’m not saying that’s not honest, or that it’s not part of discussions, but let us work together so that we can all comply with rights.
“I’m going to end here because there’s a commitment we’ve got to get to.”
But the question about political prisoners is clearly still on his mind: “It’s not right to ask me about political prisoners in general, please give me the name of a political prisoner.”
Updated
Obama: the embargo will end
“The embargo’s gonna end,” Obama declares. “When, I can’t be entirely sure … and the path is going to continue beyond my adminsitration.
“The reason is logic. The reason is what we did for 50 years did not serve our interests or the interests of the Cuban people. … If you keep on doing something over and over again for 50 years and it doesn’t work it might make sense to try something new.”
He gets to the qualification: “Having said that lifting the embargo requires the votes of a majority in Congress and maybe even more than a majority in the Senate. As I’ve indicated to President Castro two things I think will help accelerate the case …
“The first is to the degree that we can take advantage of the existing changes that we’ve already made … that will help to validate this change in policy.”
He gives the example of allowing US companies to build infrastructure and internet access in Cuba, saying that this will open the country and make business easier for Americans and Cubans both.
“The second area is human rights,” he continues. “People are still concerned about that inside of Cuba. Keep in mind i’ve got fierce disagreements with the Chinese about Cuba. I’m going to Vietnam. I have deep disagreements with them as well.
If I engage, frankly, clearly, stating what our beliefs are but also being clear that we can’t force change on any particular country, ultimately it has to come from within. That is going to be a more useful strategy than the same kinds of rigid disagreement that for 50 years did nothing.
“What this comes down to,” Obama concludes, “is I have faith in people. If they’re talking and interacting and going to school together and doing business together … they will recognize that people are people. And in that context, I believe that change will occur.”
Updated
A reporter asks Castro to expand on his hopeful remarks about “civilized coexistence”, and Castro gives a few examples.
He notes the cooperation between doctors “In Haiti with cholera, and Africa with Ebola, that [cooperation] is the future of mankind if we want to save the human species.”
“Water levels are rising,” he adds, alluding to US-Cuba cooperation on climate change, and then he loses his train of thought somewhat. “These are too many questions for me – I think some should go to President Obama.”
Obama answers a question about the embargo. “We have administratively made a number of modifications on the embargo,” he says.
“We’ve actually been fairly aggressive in exercising as much flexibility as we can given that the law putting the embargo in place has not been repealed by Congress.”
“There may be some technical aspects that we can still make adjustments on depending on problems as they arise. For instance the issue around the dollar and the need to make modifications … to encourage rather than discourage reforms that the Cuban government itself is willing to engage in and to facilitate trade and commerce.”
Obama blames Congress a bit for tying his hands: “Frankly Congress is not as active as I would like during presidential election years.”
But he says he’s still hopeful: “The fact that we have such a large congressional delegation, including Republicans and Democrats, is an indication that there is growing interest for lifting the embargo.”
Updated
Castro denies political prisoners exist
The second to Castro: this is a new direction for your country, why do you have Cuban political prisoners, and why don’t you release them?
Castro is defiant. “Give me a list and I’ll release them,” he says, suggesting Cuba has none at all. “If we have those political prisoners they will be released before tonight ends.”
A third to Castro: who do you prefer, Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump?
“Well, I can’t vote in the United States,” Castro jokes.
NB: Obama did not answer the question about why he didn’t meet Fidel Castro.
Updated
The presidents take questions. The first to Obama: how did you urge Castro on human rights and why didn’t you meet with Fidel Castro?
Obama: “We had a very frank conversation around issues of democracy and human rights. Our starting point is we have two different systems, different systems of government, of economy. And we have decades of differences,” he says.
“What I have said to President Castro is we are moving forward and not looking backward, that we don’t view Cuba as a threat to the United States.
“America believes in democracy, we believe that freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion are not just American values but are universal values.
“They may not be enshrined in the founding documents or constitution of every country … but the impulse, the human impulse toward freedom, the freedom that Jose Marti talked about, we think is a universal [freedom].”
“President Castro has pointed out in his view that everybody gets decent education or healthcare,” Obama continues, “are universal human rights as well.”
“I personally don’t disagree with him, but it doesn’t detract” from the other conversations, he insists.
“It’s not for the United States to dictate to Cuba how they should govern themselves,” he continues. “Hopefully that we can learn from each other. It does not mean that it has to be the only issue that we talk about.”
Updated
“Even as Cubans prepare for the arrival of the Rolling Stones, we’re moving ahead,” with other cultural exchanges, Obama says.
“We all look forward to tomorrow’s matchup between the Tampa Bay Rays and Cuba’s national team, and more broadly we’re moving ahead with agreements on health, science and the environment.”
He gives special praise to Cuban doctors who traveled to west Africa to combat Ebola.
“As two countries threatened by climate change I believe we can work together to protect communities on low-lying coasts.”
Finally, he says Cuba and the US are working on regional security, particularly human and drug trafficking – and resolving the 52-year war between Farc rebels and the government in Colombia. He adds that he and Castro only spoke briefly
“We remain optimistic that Colombians can achieve a lasting” peace, Obama says. “As you indicated the road ahead won’t be easy, fortunately we don’t have to swim with sharks in order to achieve the goals we’ve set forth.”
“I’m absolutely confident that if we stay on this course we can achieve a better and brighter future for the Cuban and American people. Muchas gracias.”
“We're focused on the future”-@POTUS with Pres. Castro. Get the facts on #USCuba relations: https://t.co/LTJWzR14UN https://t.co/qwJl1pE4xc
— WH National Security (@NSC44) March 21, 2016
Updated
The president begins his own laundry list of diplomatic achievements in the last year.
He says the US has expanded new flights, and begun resuming cruises and ferry service, meaning “even more Americans visiting Cuba in the years ahead and appreciating the incredible history and culture of the Cuban people.”
Then its trade. He says new rules allow the US dollar to be used more widely, more access to the dollar in international transactions, and allowing Cubans in the US to earn salaries.
“Just as I continue to call on Congress to lift the trade embargo, I encouraged President Castro” to ease restrictions on business in Cuba itself, Obama says.
Then he says “we want to help” bring Cuba online. “In the 21st century countries cannot be successful unless their citizens have access to the internet.”
Obama warns his speech will be a little long: “We have a half a century of work to catch up on.”
“Our growing engagement with Cuba is guided by one overarching goal: advancing the interest of our continent” and the lives of their nation’s peoples.
He says he’s had “very frank and candid conversations” about human rights with Castro, which they have great differences on.
Then he praises Cuba’s “enormous achievements” in education and healthcare, and says the US has no interest in directing the island’s fate.
That’s “not be decided by the United states or any other nation,” he says. “Cuba is sovereign and rightly has great pride. And the future of Cuba will be decided by Cubans, and not by anybody else.”
Obama adds that he appreciates Castro’s criticism of access to basic rights in the US: “We welcome that constructive dialogue as well. Because we believe that … we can learn and make the lives of our people better.”
“I’m very pleased that we’ve agreed to hold our next Cuba-US human rights dialogue in Havana.”
"I bring with me the greetings and friendship of the American people"-@POTUS speaking with Pres. Castro. #CubaVisit https://t.co/wTehOTuCQl
— WH National Security (@NSC44) March 21, 2016
Updated
Obama speaks from Havana
Barack Obama thanks Castro for his hospitality, and says that it would have been “unimaginable” for more than 50 years to hear an American president speak from Cuba.
He briefly goes off the speech and gives his condolences to the family of a US marine killed in Iraq this weekend. Then he returns to his prepared remarks, saying that it was important to him and his family, including his two daughters, to join him on this trip.
“They wanted to come to Cuba because they understood and we wanted to show them the beauty of Cuba and its people. We were moved by the Cubans who received us yesterday … we were grateful for the experience to see Old Havana.”
He again praises Jose Marti, the 19th century poet who fought the Spanish, saying he values “not only his role in the fight for Cuban independence but his words.”
“I bring with me the greetings and the friendship of the American people,” Obama continues, noting that he has dozens of members of Congress with him on the trip.
He says it’s “the largest such delegation of my presidency and it indicates the excitement and interest in America in the process we’ve undertaken.”
Updated
Castro says he hopes for “a new type of relationship, one that has never existed before.”
“Destroying a bridge can be an easy and quick undertaking,” he says. “Its solid reconstruction can prove a long and difficult endeavor.”
He then tells the story of Diane Nyad, an American swimmer who repeatedly tried to swim from Florida to Cuba without an anti-shark cage. She finally succeeded, Castro remembers. “Such a feat delivers a powerful message, one that should serve as an example to our nations.”
“If she could do it, then we can do it too.”
Castro says that he and Obama discussed international relations.
“There are profound differences between our countries that will not go away, since we hold different ideas on many subjects, such as political systems, democracy, the exercise of human rights, social justice, international relations, and world peace and stability.”
“We defend human rights. We consider that the civil, political, economic and cultural rights are indivisible, interdependent and universal.”
He then criticizes the US on a number of fronts: “Actually, we find it inconceivable that a government does not ensure the right to healthcare, education, social security, food, and development, equal pay, and the rights of children.”
”We oppose political manipulation and double standards in the approach to ciil rights,” he says, a line that could easily be read as a criticism of US actions in Guantánamo versus its rhetoric on human rights.
He adds that he and Obama have agreed to keep talking. “We should learn the art of co-existing with our differences in a civilized manner.”
“The revolutionary government is willing to advance toward normalization of relations because it is convinced that both countries can co-exist and cooperate in a civilized manner and for their mutual benefit, and thus contribute to peace, security and development in our continent and around the world.”
Castro says embargo and Guantanamo are 2 biggest obstacles to fully normalized US-Cuba relations pic.twitter.com/pJVgofLKaO
— Carol Lee (@carolelee) March 21, 2016
Updated
Castro: end the embargo and return Guantánamo
Castro continues to say that there’s also been progress on projects to bring medicines to Cuba.
“Much more could be done if the US blockade were lifted,” he says. “We recognize the position of president Obama and his administration against the blockade, and his repeated appeals to Congress to have it removed.
“The most reasoned measures adopted by his administration are positive but insufficient.
“I had the opportunity to discuss with the president other steps that could be taken to remove restrictions that remain in force and make a significant effect in the reduction of the blockade.
“The blockade remains in force and it contains discouraging elements and intimidating effects and [is guilty of] extraterritorial outreach.”
He says he told Obama about some examples of how the blockade hurts Cuba and other countries. “It would bring benefits to Cuban emigres who wish the best for their families.”
Castro also says Cuba demands the US: “return the territory illegally occupied by Guantánamo Base.”
He also takes a swipe at pro-democracy efforts: “No one should demand the Cuban people renounce their freedom and sovereignty.”
Updated
Castro delivers remarks
Barack Obama and Raúl Castro are at the podiums, and Castro begins.
“Mr President Barack Obama, We are pleased to welcome you on this the first visit of a president of the United states of America to our country in 88 years.
“In the 15 months that have passed since the decsion was made to establish diplomatic relations, we have achieved concrete results.”
“We were able to resume direct postal exchanges and we signed an agreement to resume commercial flights.”
He praises agreements on the protection of maritime environments and the rights of sea navigation, and he says today another agreement will be signed on agriculture. He says there are teams no working on deals to fight drug trafficking and to work together on medical initiatives, including one to combat the Zika virus.
“Cuban enterprises and their American counterparts are working to identify possible commercial operations that could materialize in the still restrictive framework of regulations. Some have already begun, especially in telecommunications.”
We’re waiting on Barack Obama and Raúl Castro, who’ve finished the first bilateral meeting between an American and Cuban president and are expected to deliver remarks any minute now.
Obama's closest adviser Valerie Jarrett waits for her boss to walk into the press conference with Raul Castro pic.twitter.com/MaW09RswQv
— Dan Roberts (@RobertsDan) March 21, 2016
The Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, Jonathan Watts, is with the giant American delegation to Cuba and investigating a conspicuous lack of Castro yesterday when Barack Obama landed in Havana.
There has been a lot of speculation in Havana about why Castro did not welcome Obama at the airport on Sunday, as he did for Pope Francis last September. Instead, the official greeting was from foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez.
This was also a lower level of protocol than Russian President Vladimir Putin and Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro received – both leaders were met by the government’s number two, Diaz Cannel.
Asked whether this was a snub, US officials dismissed Castro’s absence. saying it was not normal or expected on visits of this type to be met at the airport by a president. Maybe “US normal” is different from “Cuban normal”?
It has been a challenge getting around Havana today because of the traffic disruption caused by the Obama motorcade. Chunks of the city have been blocked off and drivers are never sure how long they will have to wait.
As he got more frustrated this morning, my driver started singing a ditty, “Oh Obama, que vienes a hacer, aqui en Habana?”
En ingles: “Oh Obama, what have you come to do, here in Havana?”
My colleague Dan Roberts is heading into the heart of the revolution – or at least the palace of it – in anticipation for Raúl Castro and Barack Obama’s remarks there.
White House National Security Council spokesman Ned Price leads journalists into the Cuban Palace of the Revolution pic.twitter.com/44lCxNpcrP
— Dan Roberts (@RobertsDan) March 21, 2016
Updated
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Updated
On the sidelines of the talks between Barack Obama and Raúl Castro, the US and Cuba are working on another extraordinary set of negotiations: an end to the decades of war between leftist guerrillas and the Colombian government. Sibylla Brodzinsky reports from Bogotá:
This afternoon, US Secretary of State John Kerry may meet Colombian rebels who are negotiating an agreement to end Latin America’s longest-running insurgency.
American diplomats will first meet with the government team from Bogotá, which has been engaged in peace talks with leaders of the Farc, Latin America’s oldest guerrilla group, for more than three years. Kerry may meet separately with rebel negotiators in the exclusive Laguito neighborhood where the talks have been held since 2012.
Kerry’s possible meeting with Farc is significant because the rebel group has been on the US list of terrorist groups since 1997, and many of its leaders are wanted in US courts on drug trafficking and terrorism charges.
Last year, Washington named a special envoy, Bernard Aronson, to the talks as a private citizen. He has a special dispensation to engage with Farc rebels, while they negotiate an end to their 52-year war against the Colombian state.
Hoping to coincide with Obama’s historic trip to Cuba, Colombia’s president, Juan Manuel Santos, and Farc’s leader, Rodrigo “Timochenko” Londono, had set 23 March as a deadline to reach a final peace agreement.
The two sides remain far apart on crucial issues of how rebels will demobilise, and how to implement the accords. Analysts expect a comprehensive agreement could take several more months to finalise.
The United States has expressed overwhelming support for the Colombia peace talks, and Barack Obama has asked Congress to support post-conflict peace efforts with $450m is US aid.
On Tuesday, both Colombian government and rebel negotiators are expected to present at an exhibition baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and Cuba’s national team, with Obama and Castro also in the stands.
*Note from New York: asked whether the secretary of state would meet with negotiators, the State Department referred us to a schedule that said Kerry would follow the president’s day plan around Havana.
Updated
Lisa O’Carroll is out getting a sense of US-Cuba relations on the streets of Havana, and, at the moment, from inside a museum where the cold war still rages. She’s discovered “The Corner of the Cretins”, complete with Ronald Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush and a Nazi-helmeted George W Bush.
Anti American rhetoric is far from subtle in the exhibits in the Museum of the Revolution in Havana. Here Republican presidents are openly referred to as “cretins” who helped the Cuban cause while elsewhere in the museum American allies in Cuba referred to as “lackeys”.
My colleague Lisa O’Carroll is also in Havana, though meeting with locals rather than pursuing the diplomatic hubbub that is Barack Obama’s motorcade. She reports from the streets of Old Havana:
Obama’s visit to Cuba was a washout for locals last night who endured hours in torrential rain hoping for a glimpse of the US president.
His planned walkabout in Old Havana was mostly abandoned, but anticipation that he or any of his entourage would whizz through the streets lasted well into the night. People gathered on street corners and balconies, and jumped at the sound of any fast modern car, rare enough sights for Cubans more accustomed to beat-up Ladas, Skodas or cars imported from the US in the 1950s.
The dilapidation in Old Havana is extraordinary. It is a miracle many of these historical buildings, which would have been condemned in Europe or America, still stand. Here’s a typical street in downtown Havana.
As Obama walked around as his entourage passed in the distance, men, women and children hovered wherever they thought they might have a vantage. Security everywhere meant public couldn’t get close. Cubans’ best hope for a sight of the US president might be tomorrow, when he makes a speech in Parque Centrale.
At the museum for José Martí, Barack Obama left a long note whose text wasn’t legible on the Cuban live footage of his visit. The White House press pool has dutifully gone back to find out what he wrote in the guest book.
“It is a great honor to pay tribute to Jose Marti, who gave his life for independence of his homeland,” Obama wrote. “His passion for liberty, freedom and self-determination lives on in the Cuban people today.”
Obama signing the guestbook at the José Marti Memorial/Museum pic.twitter.com/xjTEq1s1Mp
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) March 21, 2016
The remarkable juxtapositions keep coming from the White House press corps. Here’s the president of the United States standing in front of monuments to Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, the revolutionaries who were Fidel Castro’s top lieutenants.
#ObamaenCuba #Ché #Cienfuegos pic.twitter.com/CGNCYApMYc
— Olivier Knox (@OKnox) March 21, 2016
The White House pool reporters are filing their notes of the morning.
When the president’s motorcade left for the José Martí memorial, one writes, “hundreds of people lined the street on many stretches of the route, waving and taking pictures of the motorcade.”
The only major reminder that this is Cuba, the cold war foe and communist neighbor, was “an enormous banner of Huge Chavez [was] hanging on one lovely estate; it might have been the Venezuelan embassy, as we were in the diplomatic neighborhood.”
The pooler then had a few notes about Obama’s visit to the nearby museum, where the 96-year-old director, Aide Diaz Ortega, met him.
Obama signed the guest book as Ms. Ortega watched him pen a longish note (contents to come) taking his hand afterward to thank home for coming -- “muy amable” of him, she said – and to tell him about Jose Marti.
Around this point Obama told her he would have to come back after he finished being president, and then head off to the Palace of the Revolution for his meeting with Raúl Castro.
.@JohnKerry @AmbassadorRice Vilsack @PennyPritzker @rhodes44 @PressSec listen to national anthem @ Rev Palace pic.twitter.com/2GgquqkzRy
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) March 21, 2016
One pool reporter caught up with Secretary of State John Kerry, who was at the palace and also at the wreath-laying ceremony.
“I thought it was very interesting,” [he said of] the wreath laying ceremony. “It was more than that, you felt that it was a historic moment.”
I asked him if he cried during the ceremony
And he shook his head and said “No.”
I did.
The Beast in front of the José Marti Memorial/Museum in Havana pic.twitter.com/YbbAHOISH8
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) March 21, 2016
What was said the first time an American president met a Cuban one within the Havana’s halls of power?
“We had a great dinner.”
After meeting in the Palace of the Revolution, Raúl Castro asked Barack Obama how he found Havana so far. “We had a great tour yesterday,” Obama said. “Enjoyed it.”
Per the White House pool report, Obama and Castro then spent a few moments “talking about the common experience of raising daughters.”
President Obama shakes hands with Cuban President Castrohttps://t.co/WJUNqKUzmI
— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 21, 2016
Updated
My colleague Dan Roberts captured a bit of the moment when the Star Spangled Banner played over Cuban soil at the memorial of a revolutionary who fought to bring the country independence from Spain.
Cuban band play Star-Spangled Banner in Revolution Square (via live feed) chills spines in White House press centre pic.twitter.com/fKdWZEW5RJ
— Dan Roberts (@RobertsDan) March 21, 2016
With that the two presidents are off to have a long bilateral meeting – the first between the heads of Cuba and the US since Fidel Castro toppled General Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and the cold war froze relations between nations.
The sound has been cut from the Cuban live footage, so we’re left to wait until the presidents make comments to the press, this afternoon, to learn anything of the talks.
Elsewhere in the Palace of the Revolution, the dozens of aides and diplomats from both governments will continue their talks.
The military band strikes up again. They play La Bayemesa and the Star Spangled Banner. “Presentan armas!” the leading officer shouts. “Descansa armas!”
Castro and Obama go down the line meeting his White House advisers. Secretary of state John Kerry gives the Cuban president an enthusiastic handshake. “You know Mr Rhodes,” Obama tells Castro, referring to his adviser Ben Rhodes. “These are the two that actually did all the work,” he says, indicating the top American diplomats to Cuba.
He then meets the Cuban officials, and offers some party words to the soldiers and band.
Raúl Castro meets Barack Obama
Inside the vast Palace of the Revolution, Cuban president Raúl Castro has just welcomed American president Barack Obama in front of rows of military personnel in white. History is made – and quietly. The Cuban camera relaying the live footage is too far from the presidents to make out what they’re saying.
Secretary of state John Kerry and top White House advisers Susan Rice and Ben Rhodes are all standing by.
The headlines in Havana, courtesy my colleague Dan Roberts, who’s following Barack Obama as he meets diplomats and dignitaries in Havana.
Obama’s just met an official at the Museum of the Revolution, just nearby the memorial, and he’s written a note in the guest book there. “I’ll have to come back when I’m no longer president and I no longer have so many obligations,” he tells her.
A front page many Cubans (or Americans) thought they'd never see pic.twitter.com/kCUyJi0gzu
— Dan Roberts (@RobertsDan) March 21, 2016
And another Cuban front page from this morning in Havana for those who don't trust Granma pic.twitter.com/YxrtvBmu1r
— Dan Roberts (@RobertsDan) March 21, 2016
And with that the brief ceremony ends. The Obama and his aides swiftly go back to “the Beast,” as the armored presidential limousine is known. He’s expected to meet with Raúl Castro sometime between 11am-12pm ET.
José Martí was a poet and journalist in the late 19th century, and one of the leaders of the Cuban rebellion for independence against the Spanish. The US, driven by a mix of imperialist ambitions and a more idealistic desire to help Cuba throw off empire and decide its own fate, eventually got caught up in the war, and helped secure the island’s freedom.
Martí was wary of Spanish and American influence alike, but had great respect for Abraham Lincoln, and believed passionately in Cuban nationalism and unity. He was killed in the rebellion, and was been dubbed “the apostle” of the revolution. He’s considered a national hero by the Castro regime and dissidents both.
Updated
The president helps arrange the wreath at the memorial, which is placed at its base by two soldiers marching. Then there’s a lot of shuffling for photo ops with the press, all within sight of a monument to socialist revolutionary Che Guevara.
Obama visits José Martí memorial
Barack Obama has arrived at the memorial to José Martí in Havana, dedicated to the poet and revolutionary who fought for Cuban independence from the Spanish empire in the late 19th century.
A military band is playing his welcome, with the Cuban and American flags flying in a strong breeze. They’re playing the Star Spangled Banner.
Updated
The Washington Post’s Latin America correspondent points out that Barack Obama will venture into territories once dominated by Fidel Castro and his Soviet backers – a symbolic venue that traces Cuba’s history from Spanish colony to strongman’s island to Soviet ally and, now, something else entirely.
Obama will go twice today to Palace of the Revolution, a site likely targeted for nuclear annihilation by US in 1962 (and prob long after)
— Nick Miroff (@NickMiroff) March 21, 2016
Updated
Dan Roberts, the Guardian’s DC bureau chief, is with the White House press corps as it follows Barack Obama around Havana – or at least as close as they’re allowed to his diplomatic meetings with officials of the US’s erstwhile cold war foe. He reports from the city:
We are only a few hours into the official part of president Obama’s historic visit to Havana and already there is a historic mystery: will he, or won’t he have a joint press conference with Cuban president Raúl Castro?
The two leaders are due to have their first face-to-face meeting (apart from short handshakes in Panama and South Africa) in a three-hour bilateral, at the Palacio de la Revolución, after an official photo at 11am ET.
But whether the rapprochement stretches as far as facing journalists with questions as well as cameras is – 90 minutes beforehand – still unknown. Currently, the expectation is that a regiment of the 400 journalists in town, we’ll just get to hear some statements, and possibly the odd question shouted at the leaders.
The White House claims it has been pushing the Cuban government on the issue for weeks, and the latest tack is to argue that even President Xi Jinping of China agreed to a press conference of sorts – in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, no less – during Obama’s 2014 trip there. This was hardly a triumph of media freedom: Xi was accused of ignoring US journalists in favour of a planted question from Chinese press.
One thing is for certain this time in Havana, Obama will not be adding to his photo opportunity with Raúl Castro by meeting his brother Fidel. The White House ruled this out almost as soon as planning for the trip began, so it looks like both sides have their public relations red lines.
In the meantime, Obama is going back in history to less diplomatically sensitive times. He will lay a wreath this morning to José Martí, who led the war of independence against the Spanish in the 19th century. This afternoon he takes part in a discussion on entrepreneurship and then is back at the palace for a state dinner tonight.
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Barack Obama’s historic trip to Cuba, the first by a US president since Calvin Coolidge arrived in Havana by battleship in 1928.
Obama is with his family, dozens of White House staffers and members of Congress and a massive delegation that also includes business executives and a baseball team.
“Como andan?” he asked US embassy staff in Havana. “It’s all happening because of you. Every day you’re bringing the US and Cuba closer together.”
Monday will see a lot more business than tourism: the president begins the day with a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial for José Martí, a poet who died fighting for independence against the Spanish in 1895.
Then he meets Cuban president Raúl Castro, brother of Fidel, for an official welcoming and an extended meeting that will be closed to the press. Both presidents are set to make comments to the press around 1pm ET.
Afterward, Obama will do spend some time at an event meant to foster entrepreneurs and business, and then he and his wife will meet Castro again for a state dinner at the Palace of the Revolution.
Casting a shadow over all this diplomacy and rapprochement are the continued disputes between the US, the Castro regime and Cuban dissidents, who say Obama needs to do more to push for human rights and democratic freedoms. On Sunday, just hours before the president touched down, several dozen activists were arrested and protests forcibly broken up.
The Guardian’s DC bureau chief, Dan Roberts, is trailing Obama around Havana today, and our Latin America correspondent, Jon Watts, ismeeting the people of Havana – just days after an interview with Che Guevara’s son, a trip to the Cuban city on the outskirts of Guantánamo Bay, and a look ahead to what could be a new age of the Americas.
There will also, inevitably, be some tourism. On Sunday the first family visited Havana’s 18th-century Cathedral of St Christopher, and were cheered by crowds at Plaza de Armas, a statue of Christopher Columbus, the palace once used by the vice-governor and the supreme court, and the city museum (once the Spanish governor’s palace). There, Obama posed with a 19th-century portrait of Abraham Lincoln.
