Free Republic

President Obama landed in Cuba on Sunday afternoon, hours after dozens of dissidents from the Ladies in White movement were detained during a post-Mass, pro-democracy march, in what has become a weekly ritual of protest and arrest over almost a year. “Obama, traveling to Cuba isn’t fun,” read a banner carried by the demonstrators. “No to human rights violations.” Any hopes that this week’s demonstration, on the eve of Obama’s arrival, would be tolerated were quickly put to rest, as police handcuffed and bussed away dozens of the protesting women, and a handful of men. Ladies in White was established...

Havana (CNN) — President Barack Obama touched down in Cuba on Sunday, definitively ending a half-century of estrangement in a dramatic personal demonstration of his core foreign policy principle of engaging America's enemies. It's a shift that the change-minded president hopes will nudge the Communist government here to grant more freedoms to its people and open new economic channels for American businesses. The President and his allies also hope a successful détente will offer something bigger: a lasting example of diplomacy's power in dealing with longtime foes.

n the eve of President (Obama’s historic visit) to Cuba, authorities there are ordering dissidents invited to meet with the American leader to stay home instead, a leading human rights activist said Saturday. Elizardo Sanchez, a Cuban anti-government activist who chronicles political detentions month-to-month, said he and most of those invited planned to defy the government order. Sanchez, speaking by phone from Havana, said U.S. officials were offering to help the activists get to the meeting with Obama, scheduled for Tuesday. “Everyone is pretty determined,” he said. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Embassy in Havana, the White...

Fluttering U.S. flags, fixed-up roads and fresh paint on colonial buildings convey the optimism in Havana ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama's historic visit this weekend, but rising inequality sours the mood for some of the city's poor. The White House says the first such trip by a U.S. president since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution is a step toward better lives for Cuban people suffering under a U.S. embargo. The Obama policy has specifically targeted Cuba's small but growing private sector with measures such as allowing sales of farm and construction equipment for non-state enterprises. Private-sector workers already enjoy advantages...