The trip was the first one that an American President made since 1928, and while there, Obama certainly basked in the historic glow of the moment. He issued proclamations making it easier for American companies to do business with Cuba, and he also declared that the embargo will come to an end, although he doesn’t have any power in his capacity to lift it. Furthermore, the American leader said that further relations between the two sides were conditional on how the US assesses Cuba’s human rights situation.
Therein lays the major bone of contention, however, since what Washington labels as “pro-democracy activists” are seen by Havana as “treasonous foreign assets”, a major hurdle that neither side seems ready to compromise on.
Fedor Voitolovsky, Deputy Director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian Academy of Science(studio guest) and Angel Ricardo Martinez, geopolitical analyst based in Panama City, shared their views.
