Obama challenges Communist-led Cuba with call for democracy

Taking the stage at Havana’s Grand Theater with President Raul Castro in attendance, Obama said he was in Cuba to extend a hand of friendship and "bury the last remnant" of the Cold War in the Americas.

But he also pressed hard for economic and political reforms and greater openness in a one-party state where the government stifles dissent, Internet access is low and the media is in state hands.

His speech was the high point of a 48-hour trip made possible by his agreement with Castro in December 2014 to cast aside decades of hostility that began soon after Cuba's 1959 revolution, and work to normalize relations.

Nonetheless, Obama threw down a very public gauntlet to Castro, saying Cubans cannot realize their full potential if his government does not allow change and relax its grip on Cuban politics and society.

"I believe citizens should be free to speak their minds without fear," Obama told the audience on the final day of his visit. “Voters should be able to choose their governments in free and democratic elections.”

"Not everybody agrees with me on this, not everybody agrees with the American people on this but I believe those human rights are universal. I believe they’re the rights of the American people, the Cuban people and people around the world,” Obama said.

The hand-picked audience cheered him repeatedly, especially when he criticized the longstanding US economic embargo against Cuba, spoke glowingly of Cubans' talents and praised the country's achievements in healthcare and education.

The spectacle of the leader of the United States, the superpower to the north for long reviled by Cuba's government, standing in Havana and urging such changes in a speech broadcast into homes across the island would have been unthinkable before the two countries began their rapprochement 15 months ago.

Since then, Obama has repeatedly used his executive powers to relax trade and travel restrictions, while also pushing Cuba to accelerate cautious market-style reforms introduced by Castro and allow greater political and economic freedom.

Castro has welcomed Obama's moves while insisting that a new relationship with the old enemy does not mean Cuba plans to change its political system.

The audience of more than 1,000 people at Obama's speech on March 22 included officials and business people from both countries, US lawmakers and members of Cuba’s cultural elite.

Obama drew sustained applause when he reiterated his call for the US Congress to lift the embargo, which he called "an outdated burden on the Cuban people."