{"id":200730,"date":"2016-03-21T15:33:44","date_gmt":"2016-03-21T15:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=200730"},"modified":"2016-03-21T15:33:44","modified_gmt":"2016-03-21T15:33:44","slug":"200730","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/03\/200730\/","title":{"rendered":"Change will happen in Cuba – Obama"},"content":{"rendered":"
President Barack Obama is in Cuba for a historic three-day visit to the island and talks with its communist leader.<\/p>\n
He is the first sitting US president to visit since the 1959 revolution, which heralded decades of hostility between the two countries.<\/p>\n
Mr Obama said change would happen in Cuba and that Cuban President Raul Castro understood that.<\/p>\n
The two leaders are due to meet later on Monday to talk about trade and to hold a joint news conference.<\/p>\n
Why is the visit groundbreaking?<\/strong><\/p>\n For a US president to touch down at Jose Marti airport in Havana and be warmly greeted by Cuban’s foreign minister was until recently unthinkable.<\/p>\n For decades, the US and Cuba were engaged in a bitter stand-off, triggered by the overthrow of US-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista by Communist leader Fidel Castro in 1959.<\/p>\n The US broke off diplomatic relations and imposed a trade embargo.<\/p>\n But President Obama undertook two years of secret talks which led to the announcement in December 2014 that the two countries would restore diplomatic relations.<\/p>\n Since then, there have been a series of symbolic moments, such as the first formal meeting of Presidents Obama and Castro at a regional summit in Panama and the opening of embassies in Havana and Washington DC.<\/p>\n What have been the highlights of the visit so far?<\/strong><\/p>\n The first stop on President Obama’s tour was the newly re-opened US embassy in Havana, where he told staff it was “wonderful to be here”.<\/p>\n