{"id":236980,"date":"2021-04-02T10:15:04","date_gmt":"2021-04-02T14:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=236980"},"modified":"2021-04-02T10:15:04","modified_gmt":"2021-04-02T14:15:04","slug":"my-days-with-obama-in-cuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba-usa\/my-days-with-obama-in-cuba\/","title":{"rendered":"My days with Obama in Cuba"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was there that afternoon, <\/span>more than five years ago<\/span><\/a>. Under the rain. Waiting and waiting until, minutes after <\/span>Air Force One<\/span><\/i> landed, we saw a relaxed and smiling American president descend the steps, very different from the terrible enemy that should be expected after so many years of disputes between the U.S. and Cuba.<\/span><\/p>\n

Barack Obama<\/span><\/a> arrived in Cuba accompanied by his wife, daughters and his mother-in-law (an unusual custom), handing out handshakes, pats and smiles left and right. He looked happy. The mulatto who soon disappeared inside the Beast on his way to the heart of Havana seemed cool.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That was a historic visit, the whole island knew it, although a few did not like it very much. But those of us who were there, wet on the runway at Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed airport, knew that we were privileged\u2014most of us anonymous witnesses\u2014of a visit that should be the culminating point in a process of rapprochement that had been brewing for a couple of years.<\/span><\/p>\n

In my case, I was one of the photojournalists who covered the visit of the neighbor Obama. They were intense days, which began a month before when it was announced that a U.S. president would drop on the island, the first in 88 years. It was a month in which almost every day something was written on the subject and that information had to be illustrated, it was the month in which I took pictures of the most U.S. flags in the streets of Havana.<\/span><\/p>\n

Flags of the \u201cenemy\u201d that had become fashionable and waved on almendrones (old American cars), pedicabs and balconies, or walked through the streets deformed by the anatomy\u2014exuberant at times\u2014of my compatriots. And the thing is that the people on the street were excited, hopeful with a change that should lead to normal bilateral relations, far from what we had experienced in so many years of the cold war and what we Cubans were already really tired of.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thus, I was photographing flags and more flags, until March 20, 2016 arrived and with it, Obama. That day, after getting on his Beast, I didn\u2019t see him anymore. My mission was summed up at the airport, upon arrival. Obama that night dined at a paladar in Centro Habana, privately. Before that, he had made a brief tour of Old Havana in which I, for reasons of time and logistics, could not be present.<\/span><\/p>\n

Presidential journalistic coverage (of the first level, as they are called in Cuba) requires rigorous security protocols, which were extreme in the case of a U.S. president in Havana. We were only able to access the sites where Obama was by buses coordinated by the Cuban authorities, with prior technical review of our entire professional team.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nothing special, they are normal things, security measures that are applied around the world with greater or lesser rigor, but that inevitably slow down work and generate endless hours of waiting before taking a photo.<\/span><\/p>\n

Obama and Ra\u00fal Castro met on the second day, reviewed the troops, the visitor paid tribute to Mart\u00ed with flowers and posed with the image of Che Guevara in the background.<\/span><\/p>\n