Cuban Dissidents To Obama: Press Harder For Improved Human Rights- Eleni Loving p.1

President Obama has made a historic trip to Cuba. He is the first U.S. president to visit the country in in 90 years, and he wants to normalize the relationship between our two countries. Our relationship with Cuba has been a problem ever since the Cuban Revolution, when Fidel Castro led a revolt to take over the government and convert it to a communist country. We have since then not had any diplomatic relations with the country and we have had an embargo where we will not trade goods with them. Many people feel this embargo is the main reason that the country has a very high poverty rate. Even though many people in Cuba have been so excited too see President Obama come to the country and try to improve relations, some Cubans who regularly protest about the Castro government's human rights record are calling for President Obama to press for more protections for human rights in Cuba if he is going to normalize relations with the country.

A group called the Ladies in White, more than 50 women, gather and March silently every Sunday in the country's capital, Havana, to protest the government's harsh treatment and imprisonment of dissidents, people who speak out against the Castro government, which is now led by Fidel's brother Raul Castro. This group was out for their regular March just before Obama arrived, and there were other pro-Castro protesters who were having a counter protest showing support of the Cuban government. A representative of the Ladies in White said she felt like Obama should not have come to Cuba without first demanding that the Cuban government change some of its policies about detaining and repressing political protesters.