Obama And Castro Meet In Pivotal Moment In U.S.-Cuba Thaw

HAVANA: President Barack Obama and President Raul Castro of Cuba appeared together Monday, walking side by side at a welcoming ceremony to start the first official talks between their two governments after decades of Cold War animosity.

The leaders are expected to discuss a path toward normalizing relations, and the profound differences that still divide them economically and politically, including the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba and human rights issues.

During the welcoming ceremony at the Palace of the Revolution, the two leaders shook hands warmly before inspecting a military honor guard.

Obama appeared to make a point of walking over to the Cuban military band leader as the ceremony concluded to congratulate him on its performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" - a national anthem that is unlikely to be in its repertoire.

"Good job," Obama was overheard saying.

Obama also shook hands with an array of U.S. and Cuban officials, who were lined up on opposite sides of the narrow room.

The choreography of Monday's session has preoccupied the U.S. and Cuban governments for weeks. Both are determined to showcase a new dynamic of friendship and engagement while insisting they have conceded none of their principles.

White House officials were still not sure in the final hours before the meeting whether there would be a question-and-answer session with journalists afterward, a standard element of Obama's visits with foreign leaders but one to which Castro does not submit.

U.S. officials said Obama planned to raise the issue of Cuba's repressive tactics, on display in the days leading up to the president's visit as the government detained dissidents who could cause a diversion from the official script.

The Cubans, accustomed to exerting tight control over everything that happens on the island, have spent weeks admonishing citizens against disrupting Obama's visit or questioning government authority during the trip.

The leaders' encounter is their third face-to-face meeting since they announced a restoration of diplomatic relations in December 2014.

They met and shook hands in April 2015 at a summit meeting of Western Hemisphere nations in Panama City, and they spoke in September on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, when Obama told Castro he would like to visit this year if the conditions were right.

Before he met with Castro on Monday, the president laid a wreath at the memorial to Jose Marti, a journalist and poet whose ideals are invoked with zeal in both Miami and Havana.

Marti is that rare descendant whom both sides of a feuding family claim as their own. Or, as Achy Obejas, the Cuban-American novelist, put it: "He's a little like the Bible: Whatever you want to find support for, there's usually a little something in his work that will reflect your desire."

"Want some really gripping anti-imperialist words implicating the U.S. as a bully? Got it," she said. "Want some poetry exalting individual freedom? Got it. A little anti-racism? No problem. Warnings about dictators? Here it is."

In the afternoon, Obama is expected to attend an event with U.S. business leaders and Cuban entrepreneurs who are making money outside the state-run system.

Later, Obama and the first lady, Michelle, were to return to the palace for a state dinner hosted by Castro.

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