The historic visit of the US President to Cuba

Last night marked the start of the official tour of Barack Obama in the Cuban Republic. This is the first trip of the US leader to the Island of Freedom since the Cuban Revolution in 1959. It will last until 22nd March.

Obama's ambitions

A year ago, when Obama lost support even among Democrats, it was evident that his decisions would be blocked in the internal political process. Therefore, the only place he has left that has room for manoeuvre is his foreign policy.

In regards to Cuba, the thawing of relations was associated with many factors. The arrest of American spies, the economic interests of various US companies in relation to Cuba, international pressure, and statements from the White House leadership about the need to change the approach to Latin America have all led to a number of decisions in relation to Cuba. In the US, convicted Cuban agents were earlier released (the Cuban Five), as well as a range of sanctions eased. Also playing a role was the Pentagon faux pas where a new kind of US weapon was mistakenly sent to Cuba, which led to a serious scandal.

Obama himself said on the eve of the visit that he will be the first president to visit Cuba in almost 90 years, referring to the Calvin Coolidge, who arrived at the military ship “Texas" in 1928.

Cuban skepticism

In Cuba, people are suspicious of the high-level meeting and its possible outcomes, and rightly believe that the US would infringe on the sovereignty of the Cuban Revolution, and that the conquest involves not only military, economic, and information methods  In practice, until recently Washington led subversion against Cuba by financing local opposition cells to disseminate propaganda through radio and television, funded by the US Department of State and USAID. Despite the limited access to the Internet in Cuba, the United States also used cyber-tools to recruit agents for further work.

In addition, most US sanctions against Cuba have remained active, as part of the territory in the province of Guantanamo is under US military occupation. This naval base has become widely known because of the incarceration of prisoners accused of having "links with al-Qaeda". In addition, the closure of this prison was one of the campaign promises of Barack Obama, but it still continues to operate.