President Barack Obama flew out of the United States on Sunday bound for a historic three-day visit to the communist-ruled island of Cuba, said an AFP photographer traveling with him.
Crowds gathered and snapped pictures as Obama departed Andrews Air Force Base, just outside the capital Washington, shortly after 1730 GMT for a flight time of a little less than three hours, reversing generations of US attempts to cut Cuba from the outside world.
A light drizzle came down as the president and his family, including First Lady Michelle and the couple’s two daughters boarded Air Force One, in a closely watched trip that Washington and Havana hope will seal the renewal of ties after a half-century-long Cold War.
Obama, seeking to leave a significant foreign policy mark in his final year in office, was due to see old town Havana late Sunday, hold talks with Cuban President Raul Castro on Monday, and attend a baseball game before leaving Tuesday.
It is the first visit to Cuba by a sitting US president since Fidel Castro’s guerrillas overthrew the US-backed government of Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and the first since President Calvin Coolidge’s trip to the island 88 years ago.
AFP
