US President Barack Obama has invoked “a future of hope” for Cuba in an unprecedented live TV address delivered from the Grand Theatre in Havana.
President Obama said he had come to Cuba “to bury the last remnants of the Cold War” after decades of conflict.
He told Cuban President Raul Castro that he did not need to fear a threat from the US nor from “the voice of the Cuban people”.
In his keynote speech on the last day of his three-day visit to Cuba, Mr. Obama said it was time for the United States and Cuba to leave the past behind and make a “journey as friends and as neighbours and as family, together” towards a brighter future.
He also called for the lifting of the 54-year old US trade embargo against Cuba, which remains one of the main sticking points in US-Cuban relations but can only be lifted by the US Congress.
After the speech, Mr. Obama left to meet with Cuban dissidents, the most controversial part of his itinerary in the eyes of the Cuban government.
