Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez received at the Jose Marti International Airport the US President Barack Obama, who is traveling with his family, in what is considered a historic visit to the archipelago.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez received at the Jose Marti International Airport the US President Barack Obama, who is traveling with his family, in what is considered a historic visit to the archipelago.
The Air Force One, the presidential aircraft, landed in Havana at about 17:00 on a rather rainy and hot afternoon.
Several senators and legislators accompany the US president who is on an official visit to the country, which will conclude next Tuesday.
Sunday Obama will visit the Old Havana and the Havana Cathedral. Tomorrow the ceremonial diplomatic protocol will take place. He will also hold official talks with Cuban President Raul Castro, after which the two leaders will give statements to the press.
On Tuesday 22 the US president will address at the Grand Theater Alicia Alonso to a broad representation of Cuban civil society, according to Cuba´s foreign ministry.
Obama is accompanied by his wife Michelle and their two daughters Malia and Sasha; Secretary of State, John Kerry, US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, and other high ranking officials.
The visit of the president to Cuba will be the first of a US president in nearly 90 years, after Calvin Coolidge´s visit in January, 1928 to attend the Sixth Annual International Conference of American States, held in Havana.
The two countries restored diplomatic relations on July 20, 2015, just seven months after December 17, 2014, when Cuban President Raul Castro and his counterpart Barack Obama announced the decision to resume these links and begin a process towards normalization of bilateral ties.
On November 4, 2008, Obama was elected the forty-fourth US president. He took office on January 20, 2009, and was reelected in the 2012 elections, after defeating Republican candidate Mitt Romney, for a new term that will end in January 2017.
Source: CubaSí
Translation: Ilia Charon