President Obama isn’t going to Cuba any time soon, he said Friday, as speculation mounted about a possible presidential visit to Havana in the wake of his administration normalizing relations with the island nation.
“We are not at that stage where a visit to Cuba is in the cards,” Obama said in his annual year-end press conference, ahead of a family vacation in Hawaii.
Though the president can’t lift the economic embargo against Cuba on his own, he has made it easier for Americans to travel to Cuba, bring Cuban goods back to the United States and conduct business transactions there.
The U.S. soon will open an embassy in Havana, launching diplomatic talks with Cuba for the first time in a half-century.
Republicans say Obama is offering a lifeline to the Castro regime without securing any Democratic reforms in return. Some conservatives have called for the blocking of a future ambassador to Cuba and funding for a potential embassy.
Obama predicted that the argument would not slow in 2015.
“People will see how the actions we take unfold,” he said. “And I think there’s going to be a healthy debate.”
