Obama fails to tackle main issues during Cuba visit

US President Barack Obama began a historic visit to Cuba on Sunday, the first by a US president in 88 years. He toured the old town in Havana known as Habana Vieja, met Cuban leader Raul Castro, delivered a speech that was televised live and watched a baseball game between US and Cuban teams, among other things.

Before the trip, the US Commerce and Treasury departments announced amendments to the US sanctions regulations on Cuba, making it slightly easier for travel, financial transactions and doing business between the two countries, which are only 144.84 kilometers from each other.

Obama should be praised for his efforts toward normalizing relations between the two countries over the past years, an effort that resulted in the reopening of their respective embassies last summer. But it was still just the start, and in fact many people had expected such progress during his first term in office, not the second term, based on his previous promises.