President Obama Heralds 'New Day' in US-Cuban Relations

In a statement following meetings with Cuban President Raúl Castro in Havana today, President Barack Obama declared it a “new day” in U.S.-Cuban relations.

“For more than half a century, the sight of a U.S. president here in Havana would have been unimaginable. But this is a new day. Es una nueva dia,” Obama said in remarks to reporters at the presidential palace in Cuba.

While celebrating the progress in the relationship, Obama also said that the two countries continue to have important differences and that the U.S. will continue to speak out on the issue of human rights and democracy.

President Castro, in his statement, said that Cuba and the U.S. have achieved “good results” since the reestablishment of bilateral relations, but that that the “positive” steps that have been taken remain “insufficient” due to the continuation of the trade embargo that remains intact and would require an act of Congress to remove.

Castro also called for the return of the territory occupied by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay, which he said is “illegally occupied.”

Castro welcomed Obama to the Palace of the Revolution for meetings this morning after the American president visited the memorial honoring Cuban independence hero José Martí.

Obama is in the midst of a two-day trip to the island nation that marks the first visit by a sitting U.S. president in nearly 90 years and comes after the two countries reestablished a bilateral relationship in December 2014 following more than five decades of severed relations.

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