DHAKA: President Obama is to visit Cuba in the coming weeks as part of a broader trip to Latin America.

Reports say, according to the BBC.

He will be only the second sitting US president in history to travel to the island, after Calvin Coolidge in 1928.

US Republicans have criticized the visit, saying it should not take place while the Castro family is in power.

Washington and Havana restored diplomatic ties last July and the US relaxed travel and trade restrictions after a 54-year freeze.

Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, both sons of Cuban migrants, said the visit was a mistake.

Asked whether he would go, Rubio said, ‘Not if it’s not a free Cuba’. Cruz said Obama would be acting ‘as an apologist’.

In December, Obama told Yahoo News he wanted to meet political dissidents in Cuba to help ‘nudge the Cuban government in a new direction’.

Cuba’s government responded by saying Obama was welcome to visit but should not meddle in the country’s internal affairs.

Obama’s visit could coincide with the signing of a peace deal in Havana between the Colombian government and rebels from the Farc group to end that country’s civil war, due to take place by 23 March.

The deal was encouraged by the Cuban government.

On Tuesday, US and Cuban officials signed a deal to resume commercial air traffic for the first time in five decades.

However, the Republican majority in the US Congress has blocked Obama’s call to end the longstanding trade embargo.

The embargo limits trade and also bans US tourists from visiting the island.

BDST: 1646 HRS, FEB 18, 2016
RR