Dozens of Congressmen Accompany Obama in Visit to Cuba

About 40 congressmen accompany US President Barack Obama in the visit the head of State started to Cuba today and that will conclude next Tuesday. Among the lawmakers are the leader of the democrat minority at the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, and her fellow democrats from the Senate Dick Durbin and Patrick Leahy, apart from Republican senator Jeff Flake, who traveled along with the president, first lady Michelle, and his daughters Malia and Sasha.

The rest of the congress members, among them Republican senators Amy Klobuchard and Mark Sanford, and democrat representatives Charles Rangel and Rosa DeLauro, travelled in a separate flight that arrived at Jose Marti international airport shortly before.

Obama and his delegation arrived in Havana at 16:20 (local time), three hours after the Air Force One airplane took off Andrews air base, in Maryland, near the US capital.

The chief of the White House has repeatedly asked congress members to lift unilateral sanctions against Cuba, because that legislative body is the only one with power to eliminate them, though the president has prerogatives to put an end to a good part of them.

Cuban authorities consider the 50-year-old US economic, commercial, and financial blockade of Cuba as the main obstacle to normalize relations between he two countries.