President Obama will travel to Cuba next month in part to help ensure his more open policy toward the communist island nation isn’t reversed by the next president, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes told reporters Thursday.
“We want to make this policy change to be irreversible,” Rhodes said.
Many Republicans oppose Obama’s decision to ease trade and travel restrictions for Cuba, and say the U.S. should have traded those offerings for commitments from Cuba to improve its human rights regime and undertake democratic reforms. Those who favor Obama’s moved fear a Republican president would eliminate those changes.
Rhodes said the administration also wants the U.S. embassy in Havana to remain open, U.S.-Cuba flights to continue and new business relationships to flourish after he leaves office.
According to Rhodes, the White House is not satisfied with the Cuban government’s human rights record, but Obama is heading to Havana next month to prod the communist nation’s leader, President Raul Castro, on that issue, and believes working with Cuba is the best way to make progress.
“Not going and isolating Cuba doesn’t serve to advance those issues,” Rhodes said. “We will be in a better position to support human rights … by engaging” the Cuban government.
Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will visit Cuba March 21-22 before heading to Argentina. Obama will meet with dissidents while he is there, but will not sit with former President Fidel Castro, Rhodes said.
“We engage civil societies in countries across the world; this is part of how the president does business,” Rhodes said of why he will meet with Cubans opposed to the Castro regime. “It’s part of the how the U.S.” deals with repressive governments, he said. “It doesn’t mean we’re seeking to overthrow the Cuban government.”
Obama likely will have an opportunity to address the Cuban people while there, although nothing concrete is planned yet, Rhodes said.
