On Sunday (Mar. 20), President Obama and the First Family landed in Cuba, for the very first visit to the Cuban state by a U.S. president in nearly 90 years. The historic visit comes almost 15 months after the Obama administration announced that the U.S. and Cuba would be restoring its diplomatic ties.
Upon the First Family’s arrival. President Obama tweeted from his account, “¿Que bolá Cuba? Just touched down here, looking forward to meeting and hearing directly from the Cuban people.”
As they descended the plane at Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport aboard an Air Force One, the family was greeted by high level members in the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the U.S. and Cuban Embassies. President Obama’s stay in Cuba will be joined by a large U.S. delegation of 39 members of Congress, including five Republicans.
¿Que bolá Cuba? Just touched down here, looking forward to meeting and hearing directly from the Cuban people.
— President Obama (@POTUS) March 20, 2016
Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Sasha, and Malia will spend two and a half days in Cuba during their visit. To commemorate the historic event, the visit will include a bilateral meeting with President Raul Castro, according to ABC News. The U.S. president is also scheduled to address the Cuban citizens in a speech on Tuesday, March 22, as well as attend a baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban National team.
The U.S.’s extended absence from Cuban soil was a result of a former policy that attempted to isolate Cuba’s communist government during the Cuban Revolution of 1959. The historic visit comes nearly nine decades after President Obama abandoned the former policy, announcing the reunion of the nations in December 2014.
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