Cuban Council of Churches Welcomes Obama’s visit, a “Win” For All

Cuban Council of Churches Welcomes Obama's visit, a "Win" For All / EFE,
14ymedio
Posted on March 9, 2016

EFE (14ymedio), Havana, 7 March 2016 – The Cuban Council of Churches
(CIC) said this Sunday that it "salutes and celebrates" the President of
United States Barack Obama's visit to the island on the 21-22 March,
which will be "profitable" for both countries, the region and the world
in the current international context.

"We appreciate that this visit is being realized from a position of
mutual respect and recognition of the sovereignty of peoples, cultures
and specificities of each nation," said a statement by the CIC, which
brings together a community of Protestant and evangelical churches and
ecumenical institutions of the island.

The Council of Churches believes that the visit of Obama, the first US
president to travel to Cuba in 88 years, is an "important step forward"
in the normalization of relations, which can positively affect both
countries and all of Latin America, it says in the statement released
today in the official media on the island.

"Many of the Cuban Protestant and Evangelical churches are heirs of the
work of American missionaries and American," institutions that have
become "a bridge of friendship" between Cubans and Americans in search
for a possible normalization between the two countries, he said.

The statement also says that the American president will visit an island
of "peace and diversity," with European, African and Asian cultural
roots, and where different branches of Christianity, along with eight
religions live "in harmony."

US President Barack Obama, announced on 18 February that he will travel
to Cuba with the first lady, Michelle Obama, with the goal of expanding
progress with bilateral normalization, which began in December 2014, and
to influence pending improvements on human rights.

In addition to holding a bilateral meeting with Cuban President Raul
Castro, Obama will meet with members of civil society and
business. However, an interview with the US president and the Cuban
ex-president, Fidel Castro is not expected.

This will be the first trip by a US president to the island since Calvin
Coolidge travelled to Cuba in 1928.

In 1948, then US president Harry Truman visited the Guantanamo Bay Naval
Base and US-controlled territory, and Jimmy Carter has also traveled to
Cuba several times, but never during his presidency.

Source: Cuban Council of Churches Welcomes Obama's visit, a "Win" For
All / EFE, 14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/cuban-council-of-churches-welcomes-obamas-visit-a-win-for-all-efe-14ymedio/