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Cubans Embrace President Obama's Call For Change On The Island

Tim Padgett
/
WLRN.org
Cuban accounting professor Kariel Gonzalez says he was impressed with President Obama's Tuesday speech in Havana.

It's fairly apparent that President Obama's historic speech to Cubans yesterday was received positively on the island.

Obama called for democracy, free expression and a freer economy during his 35-minute speech at the Gran Teatro in Old Havana Tuesday morning. Obama even directly addressed Cuban leader Raúl Castro, who was in the audience, telling him the U.S. presidential visit means he no longer needs to fear Cuba's Cold War foe.

"I have come here to bury the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas," Obama declared in perhaps the linchpin line of his speech.

The address touched on the close historical and cultural connections between the U.S. and Cuba, while laying out Obama's vision for the new normalization of relations.

"In the United States we have a clear monument to what the Cuban people can build - it's called Miami," Obama said. "Here in Havana we see that same talent in cuentapropistas [private entrepreneurs], cooperatives and old cars that still run."

The President repeated his support to end the trade embargo, but also endorsed changes the Cuban government could take - including human rights improvements, allowing for the direct hiring of Cuban workers by foreign companies, unifying Cuba's two disparate currencies and spreading Internet service across the island.

Obama addressed ordinary Cubans several times during the speech, and the nation's 11 million people were listening and watching, live, on television and radio.

One of those listening by radio in Havana's Vedado district was 34-year-old accounting professor Kariel González. Like most Cubans, he said he liked what he heard.

"I think I'm very impressed with President Obama," González told WLRN. "Actually I never thought that an American president could speak like that, and less so in Cuba. Especially where he said in Spanish, 'sí se puede,' which means, 'yes we can.' And also the part in which he encouraged the Cuban people to make changes in order to have a new future for our nation, for Cuba."

After the speech, Obama met for more than an hour with 13 of Cuba's political dissidents. He then took in a baseball game at Havana's Estadio Latinoamericano before leaving to visit Argentina.

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