Cuba's love for Obama swells: Bay of Pigs veterans reflect on the 'inconceivable'

[Bacchus4.0]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/17/cuba-love-obama-bay-of-pigs-anniversary

Someone needs to tell Cubans that Obama and the US are supposed to be disliked, and his summit in Panama was a failure.



Fifty-four years after the invasion that put US and Cuba’s relationship at rock bottom, Obama’s popularity is even higher than Fidel and Raúl Castro


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Following a breakthrough meeting last Saturday between Barack Obama and the Cuban president, Raúl Castro, even such battle-hardened anti-imperialists as Gómez are starting to think the US may finally have a president who understands Latin America.


This has made Cubans even more enamoured of Obama, who was already popular as a result of his joint announcement with Castro on 17 December to normalise relations between the two neighbours.


Even before last week’s summit, an unauthorised poll by a Miami-based company suggested Obama enjoyed an 80% approval rating in Cuba, well above that of Fidel or Raúl Castro. As independent polling is prohibited in Cuba, it is hard to gauge the accuracy of that survey. But based on dozens of interviews by the Guardian over the past week, it is hard to dispute one of the key findings: Obama enjoys a level of popularity in Cuba than he could only dream of in the US.