President Obama and the first lady will visit Cuba next month, a senior administration official confirmed to BuzzFeed News on Wednesday.
It will be the first time a sitting U.S. president will visit the island nation since 1928. The trip will also include a stop in Argentina, according to the White House press secretary.
The planned visit comes after Obama announced an overhaul to U.S.-Cuba relations in late 2014. It was expected to be officially announced Thursday morning at a White House briefing, ABC News reported.
The Obamas will be in Cuba on March 21 and 22 and will then head to Argentina for the following two days.
While in Cuba, the president will work to continue normalizing relations with the country, focusing on "advancing commercial and people-to-people ties" in addition to discussing human rights, according to a White House press release. He will meet with president Raul Castro, entrepreneurs, and other locals.
In December 2014, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama wouldn't rule out a visit to Cuba. In January, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told the Los Angeles Times that the president was considering a trip this year — if Cuba improved its human rights record and opened its doors to more American business.
The Obama administration this week approved the first U.S. factory in Cuba in more than 50 years. A small Alabama company will build a plant to manufacture tractors, the Associated Press reported.
Obama tweeted about his upcoming trip on Thursday morning.
14 months ago, I announced that we would begin normalizing relations with Cuba - and we've already made significant progress.
We still have differences with the Cuban government that I will raise directly. America will always stand for human rights around the world.
Here's how we're looking at the road ahead: https://t.co/a0KcsmpF39
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