Roundup: Obama wraps up Cuba visit, travels to Argentina

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday concluded his three-day visit to Cuba, and flew to Argentina on the second and last leg of his Latin America tour.

The U.S. presidential plane Air Force One took off at 4:19 p.m. local time (2019 GMT), ending the first visit to Cuba by a U.S. head of state in 88 years, and the first since the 1959 Cuban Revolution that brought former leader Fidel Castro to power.

Before boarding, Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro shook hands in a demonstration of shared willingness to continue the process of normalizing bilateral ties they jointly announced on Dec. 17, 2014. The two countries restored diplomatic relations on July 20, 2015.

Obama began the visit on Sunday and arrived in Havana with his wife, daughters and mother in law, as well as 40 members of Congress and a business delegation.

The U.S. First Family spent Sunday afternoon touring Old Havana and visiting the Cathedral, where Obama met with Cardinal Jaime Ortega, a key figure in the negotiations that led up to the surprise December announcement.

On Monday, Obama paid tribute to Cuban national hero Jose Marti, laying a wreath at his mausoleum at Revolution Square, then held a closed-door meeting with Castro at the government headquarters.

After the meeting, the two leaders held a joint press conference, where Castro and Obama reviewed the two countries' conflicts, focusing on the continuing economic embargo and the Guantanamo Naval Base.

"The blockade remains in force, it contains discouraging elements, intimidating effects and is guilty of extraterritorial outreach," said Castro.

"Much more could be done if the blockade was lifted. We recognize the position of President Obama against the blockade and his repeated appeals to Congress to have it removed. However, the most reasonable measures by his administration are positive but insufficient," he added.

Castro also demanded the return of "the territory illegally occupied by the Guantanamo Base."

The United States first leased the Guantanamo Bay camp from Cuba in 1903, for which it pays a ludicrously low rent of 4,085 U.S. dollars a year. Havana has been demanding its return ever since the Cuban revolution in 1959.

Castro also lambasted Washington for its continued intervention in Cuban affairs, saying that "nobody should demand that the Cuban people renounce their freedom and sovereignty."

Later on Monday, Obama hosted an entrepreneurial conference organized by the Cuban Chamber of Commerce, where the representatives of U.S. companies met with their local counterparts, including from Cuba's fledgling private sector, to explore investment opportunities in Cuba.

At the forum, as throughout the visit, both sides stressed that the trade embargo remains the main obstacle to normalizing political and business ties.

Obama also announced educational exchanges that will see Cuban entrepreneurs invited to the United States, and U.S. companies going to Cuba to offer training for local business.

On Tuesday, Obama addressed the Cuban nation via a live broadcast from the Grand Theater of Havana, where Castro was among the audience.

Obama said his trip aimed to put an end to the Cold War animosity that had lingered in broken Cuba-U.S. ties, adding the Cuban government and people have nothing to fear from the United States, and that only the Cubans will decide their future.

Before leaving Cuba, Obama and Castro together attended a friendly baseball game between the island's national team and U.S. major league team Tampa Bay Rays at Havana's Latinoamericano Stadium.

The United States broke off relations with Cuba in January 1961, soon after its government nationalized private companies, many of them U.S. owned. Endi