President Barack Obama and His Family Arrived in Cuba
POPPY HARLOW, CNN HOST: It is 5:00 here on the east coast. It is so glad you are with us. History has just been made. I'm Poppy Harlow. And tonight all eyes are on Cuba. Remember this day. It is a defining day in American History, March 20th, 2016, the day that the president of the United States walked off Air Force One and walked on to Cuban soil.</s>HARLOW: The last time a sitting U.S. president stepped into the Cuba, 1928. That is when then President Calvin Coolidge sailed there aboard a battleship from Florida. President Obama surprised the world when just 15 months ago, he announced that the decades-long freeze in relations between Cuba and the United States was ending. Well, today he and the first family walked the walk. They are now standing on a new clean page of U.S. history. The first family will be in Cuba until Tuesday. They have many activities plans. The main event tomorrow that is when President Obama sits down face-to-face with Cuban president Raul Castro. This will be their first meeting in Cuba. I want to take you straight to Havana. My friend, my colleague Chris Cuomo is there. What a moment Chris to be there. I know the weather isn't cooperating. It is a little bit of a downpour behind you. But tell me what it is like to be there and also the fact that president Castro wasn't there to meet the president at the airport.</s>CHRIS CUOMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look. You framed it the right way, Poppy. But it is all about perspective. Think about it. Your child, we know you are really close now, when your child comes into the world, it will be a different relationship between the U.S. and Cuba than you and I have known, OK.</s>HARLOW: Yes.</s>CUOMO: For generations of Cubans, they were told this would never happen. And is this rainy? Yes. The air was thick with anticipation and then the clouds opened up. An old man told me in the square in front of the bureau that Fidel brought</s>U.N. PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They talked before and they will be spending a lot of time together on this trip.</s>CUOMO: So this is true but cover and how much of that is OK?</s>OPPMANN: We are going cautiously. He want friendly relations but these countries will probably never be friends. As our government officials tells me here, they want to be able to coexist which they have never done. But we are talking about, you know, a new day. This is a lot of ways a new world with the revolution and every country but Mexico, broke relations in the hemisphere with Cuba. You know, up until last year, we were the only country in Hemisphere that didn't have</s>CUOMO: But this means more for Cuba and for Cubans than it does for the United States. I mean, the embargo isn't hurting the U.S. except this generation, two generations of Cuban Americans who lost so much here, who are worried about the perceptions of Castros and the realities of the Castros and wanted America to be a defender. Someone that wouldn't turn blind eye to those wrongs. All that is in play right now.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It is like a big Peaya (ph) right now. There is a lot of mix of different things going on here, Chris. You know, one thing that we can say about this is that this is going to be a diplomatic dance for President Obama. You know, he is coming in. He wants to show the world that the president of the United States and his family have come to Cuba. But at the same time, you know, the White House made it very clear. He is going to talk about the rights of Cubans and how he wants to see those rights broadened. He wants freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly. Those are things that are not enjoyed broadly here in Cuba. So the president wants to get that message across. But in terms of what is at stake for the Cubans, the greatest natural resource forts Cubans has almost its opposition to the United States. Well, President Obama is now trying to take that off the table. And you know, Cuba can't count on the Soviet Union any more. Can't count on the petrol dollars coming from Venezuela anymore. They need the United States. And as Patrick said, the United States was so isolated in Latin-America, in a sense they need Cuba. They have been talking about the Colombian peace process in the context of these talks with the Cuban officials. And so they are hoping that this pays dividends on a lot of different fronts.</s>CUOMO: Earlier today, it was a beautiful day, by the way, before the rain came. The rain here for weeks as Patrick Oppmann keeps on blaming on me. Right now, we are seeing something that you don't see the way when it was El Papa. When the Pope came, there were pictures of him all over Havana and beyond. This is one of the rare images of President Raul Castro and President Obama. The significance, Patrick.</s>OPPMANN: One of the very few. It just show how cautious. I have to tell you, I have worked with officials and a lot of big events. Now, I have never seen them more tense, more concern. The narrative here breaks with their entire life that United States is blame, the enemy. You know, last U.S. invasion was the Bay of Pigs. And then they will always stand up to the U.S. Well, you know, maybe that one in respect from a lot of countries around the world but it broke the economy here. And I think Cuban officials tell me again and again we want a normal country. And part of that is having normalize relations with the U.S. So, you know, it is going to be slow moving forward. But President Obama has something in common with most Cubans that Raul Castro doesn't, which is that he wasn't born when the revolution took place. He also is of African heritage. So it look when you seem someone with a recognized, you know, that meeting you covered in Panama, you know, Raul Castro railing against the U.S. and saying I can't blame you because you weren't even alive then.</s>ACOSTA: He likes president Obama.</s>OPPMANN: He does.</s>ACOSTA: And during pros press conference I ask --</s>CUOMO: Which by the way, that is a plus/minus also. It is a lot of political opponents would be there. You know, that is what is wrong with President Obama. That is a guy that Raul Castro likes him and fair or unfair.</s>ACOSTA: That's right. Ted Cruz just put on a statement a few moments ago saying that the president by visiting Cuba is legitimizing a brutal dictatorship. Those are essentially the words coming from Ted Cruz. But you are right. It does cut both ways in terms of the president's relationship with Raul Castro. But when I asked President Obama, because Raul says sure I trust President Obama. I asked President Obama, do you trust Raul Castro during that press conference in Panama, he didn't answer the question. He didn't say yes I trust Raul Castro. SO this is going to take time. It took 50 years or 60 years to get to this point. It is not going to change overnight. This is the first step in the process. Yes, Raul Castro did not come and meet President Obama at the airport. I don't think this is a diplomatic disaster from the word go. We, like Patrick said, we have a few days to get through together. Few mojitos would be drink along the way. Few cigars will be smoked.</s>CUOMO: And I'm being told they knew that President Castro wouldn't be here to meet him when he got off the plane. So this isn't something where President Obama was surprised. Any intrigue like that is simply unfounded on the basis of fact as we understand it right now.</s>OPPMANN: Every moment has been planned. The U.S. and Cuba, since the embassy opening, have been working more closely than ever. It used to be if you were a U.S. diplomat here, you were completely isolated. You have one meeting to Cuban official and that was about it. They spied on you. They harassed you. Didn't work with you. That is strange. But it is going to be hard. It took 10 administrations, U.S. administrations, to get where we are now. If it was easy, it would have happened earlier.</s>CUOMO: Patrick Oppmann, Jim Acosta, thank you very much. We are going to get dried off here and then we are going to continue our special coverage from Havana. History has just been made. And there's a lot more to come. So coming up, we are going to show that the first family is going to take part in a big embassy meet and greet, another first. It set to tour the family the streets of old Havana in the rain. We will take you there live. Stay with us. So, what we just saw, just a reminder, if we can get a picture up there, United States finally has a president, since the revolution, setting foot on Cuban soil. That's a good thing for a lot of people. It is a scary thing for a lot of people. But to be sure, it ends more than half a century of strained relationships. We are going to have CNN's Patrick Oppmann. He is going to take a look at how we got to where we are right now. There's a lot of history. Here is how the story has gone.</s>OPPMANN: It is the communist island just 90 miles off the United States and for more than 50 years relations between Cuba and the United States have been chilly at best until now.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fidel Castro in Cuba. Castro and his</s>OPPMANN: 1959, Fidel Castro leads an army of thousands into Havana forcing out the dictator at the time and becomes the country's new leader. There were high hopes for the young revolutionary but almost immediately confrontation begins with the United States. The U.S. places an embargo on Cuba and soon after breaks off diplomatic relations. Later, the infamous failed U.S. invasion at the Bay of Pigs. The CIA hatches plots to assassinate Castro. Hundreds of plots according to the Cubans. And soon the Soviet Union secretly deploys nuclear missiles to Cuba.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Regard any nuclear missile launch from Cuba against any nation in the western hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States.</s>OPPMANN: The Cuban missile crisis lasts just two weeks. But Cuba and the United States remained locked in cold war tensions for decades. In 198 0 an exodus as more than 100,000 Cubans come to the United States after Castro loosens restrictions. Two decades later, another Cuban leaving by boat, 6-year-old Elan Gonzalez. His arrival in the United States sparks custody battle chess trance forms into a propaganda victory. Fidel Castro said he expected to die while in power. But in 2006, a mystery illness forces him to step down. His brother Raul takes over. And in 2015, that's what many consider to be unthinkable, restores diplomatic relations with Cuba's longtime nemesis, the United States.