Obama’s historic visit to Cuba

President Obama embarked Sunday on a historic trip to Cuba, where a government that has vilified the United States for decades prepared a red carpet welcome.

The three-day trip, the first by a sitting U.S. president in 88 years, is the culmination of a diplomatic opening announced by Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro in December 2014, ending a Cold War-era estrangement that began when the Cuban Revolution ousted a pro-American government in 1959.

Obama, who abandoned a longtime U.S. policy of trying to isolate Cuba, now wants to make his shift irreversible. But major obstacles remain to the full normalization of ties, and the president’s critics at home say the visit is premature. (AP)