President Obama will visit Cuba in historic trip next month, sources say.

[forest444]

President Obama is planning a trip to Cuba some time next month, marking the first time in more than 80 years a sitting U.S. president will visit the country, according to sources with knowledge of the plan.

A National Security Council official plans to make the announcement tomorrow at the White House briefing. The trip is planned for March 21-22, before the president flies to Argentina.

The move comes roughly 15 months following the president's pledge with Cuban President Raúl Castro to reopen diplomatic channels following a prisoner exchange and the humanitarian release of U.S. contractor Alan Gross in December 2014.

Since the announcement, the two countries have had a series of diplomatic talks, leading to the reopening of embassies last summer and the recent deal restoring commercial air traffic.

The last and only sitting U.S. president to visit the island nation only 90 miles south of the Florida keys was Calvin Coolidge, in 1928, to address the Sixth Annual International Conference of American States in Havana. He met with Cuba's President Gerardo Machado, who was in office from 1925 to 1933, until he was forced into exile.

President Jimmy Carter traveled to Cuba in 2002, 20 years after leaving office, at the invitation of President Fidel Castro. Carter also made a trip in 2011.

At: http://abcnews.go.com/US/president-obama-planning-trip-cuba-month-sources/story?id=37015093

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

1. Wow. This is huge.

[forest444]

3. It's certainly brave of him, given how much it will rile the far right.

Perhaps with that in mind, Obama took care to schedule a visit to Argentina's recently-inaugurated far-right president, Mauricio Macri (who's been jailing opponents and censoring tv and radio, and whose GOP-style trickle-down policies have caused a sharp jump in prices, layoffs, and a sudden recession).

He shouldn't have bothered; no Republican will think better of him for taking time to visit thuggish right-wingers like Macri. Many in Latin America and elsewhere in the world, however, will certainly notice that he's arriving in Argentina on March 23 - the 40th anniversary of the infamous, Kissinger-sponsored 1976 coup.

That will take a little of the luster off this very historic trip; but the visit to Cuba nevertheless promises to be a historic event with a capital H.

[Mika]

4. Let's see if he bows to the rabid Miami exiles and visits some famous US paid "dissidents"...

... after all, he's mouthed many of the right nouns and verbs that the RW "exiles" like to hear when he comes down to Miami to talk to the terrorists in the terrorist organization - the CANF.

If he does, then I'd like President Obama to invite President Castro and then have Castro meet with US dissidents.

[Judi Lynn]

6. It's going to be hilarious when US tourists can be there to see these clowns at their mock protests.

We can be sure there won't be the old claims the un-armed Cuban police are "brutalizing" them when there are witnesses standing there watching them who can tell folks at home all about it.

If anything had EVER happened in Havana even resembling the tiniest bit what has happened to protesters in the US, it would have been spashed all over newspapers, magazines, tv screens relentlessly. We'd STILL be hearing about it.

I'm sure you've seen just a little of that yourself, Mika, in MIAMI, for crying out loud!

Yeah, I'd like to know if the dissidents have any gripes they want to yammer about to President Obama regarding the stipends they receive from US "democracy aid" budgets, and money channeled through US NGO's, through NED, USAID's little projects.

Maybe they'd enjoy sharing their stories with Raul Castro about how much more comfortable getting salaries from the US Government makes their lives in Cuba, while everyone else has to live with the effects of the embargo.

[BeyondGeography]

2. Awesome

Progress.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Such great news. Never expected to hear this for years to come. This is WONDERFUL.

It's time to remove that damned embargo. Immediately.

Thank you, forest444. This is one story that's going to continue to get bigger. Can't wait to see the photos.