Secretary of State John Kerry and President Barak Obama are both likely to pay a visit to Cuba before the end of their time in office. If they do, they will become the first people that hold their respective positions to visit the country since 1961.
In a historic announcement on Wednesday, Obama declared that the U.S. would restore and normalize diplomatic ties with the country just 90 miles from Florida, after nearly 60 years of isolation. Before Wednesday, Americans were not able to freely travel to Cuba. “If there is an opportunity for the president to visit, I’m sure he wouldn’t turn it down,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at apress briefing on Wednesday.
Although the next elected president could overturn Obama’s policy change in 2016, the president said he hoped Congress would completely lift the U.S. embargo before his departure from the White House, according to Reuters. The Assistant Secretary for the Western Hemisphere Roberta Jacobson is scheduled to make a trip to Cuba in January for the next set of U.S.-Cuba Migration talks.
“I look forward to being the first Secretary of State in 60 years to visit Cuba,” Kerry said in a press statement. “Promoting freedom of speech and entrepreneurship and an active civil society will only strengthen Cuban society and help to reintegrate Cuba into the international community.”
