Congress Remains Divided Ahead of Obama's Cuba Visit

A poster features portraits of Cuba's President Raul Castro, left, and U.S. President Barack Obama and reads in Spanish "Welcome to Cuba" outside a restaurant in Havana, Cuba, March 17, 2016. Obama is scheduled to travel to the island on March 20, the first U.S. presidential trip to Havana in nearly 90 years. 

Michael Bowman, Smita Nordwall

March 18, 2016 7:53 AM

WASHINGTON— U.S. President Barack Obama’s trip to Cuba is being anticipated by many as a historic chance to thaw relations with Havana.
Despite the reluctance of some in Congress, Obama has moved aggressively to restore economic and diplomatic relations with the communist island.
National Security Adviser Susan Rice told the Atlantic Council Thursday, "As President Obama has repeatedly said, we know that change won’t come to Cuba overnight. But the old approach — trying to isolate Cuba, for more than 50 years — clearly didn’t work. We believe that engagement — including greater trade, travel and ties between Americans and Cubans — is the best way to help create opportunity and spur progress for the Cuban people."

FILE - National Security Adviser Susan Rice.

Several members of Congress from both sides of the aisle will join Obama on the trip starting Sunday, a gesture many hope shows that improving relations is becoming a bipartisan issue.
Positive for Cuban people
Republican Jeff Flake, who plans to accompany the president, says he is "excited" about the trip. He hopes it will be good for the Cuban people.
"It's always bothered me that as Republicans we talk about engagement, travel and commerce as something that will nudge countries toward democracy," he said. "But with Cuba, we tend to say 'No, no, it won't work there.' But it will work. It is working."

Refrigerator magnets are displayed for sale in a tourist shop, several showing images of U.S. President Barack Obama, at a market in Havana, Cuba, March 14, 2016. Obama will travel to Cuba on March 20.

Human rights concerns remain
Not all lawmakers share Flake's enthusiasm. Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, a Cuban American from Florida, is among them. He faults the president for embarking on a visit that does not meet the criteria set by the administration.
"The president said he would only go to Cuba if he could honestly say he saw changes, in terms of the people's basic, fundamental freedoms," Menendez said. He said those changes have not occurred.
"What we have seen in the first two-and-a-half months of this year is 1,400 new arrests and several of the people who were released under the original deal have been re-arrested and are now in jail. To me, that cannot be seen as progress as it relates to the basic, fundamental elements of democracy and human rights."

FILE - U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) speaks about President Barack Obama's planned trip to Cuba during a news conference, Feb. 18, 2016, in Union City, N.J.

Obama's three-day visit will make him the first sitting U.S. president to visit the island nation in nearly 90 years. The two nations have endured 50 years of hostilities, after revolutionary Fidel Castro overthrew the U.S.-supported dictator Fulgencio Batista.