CUBA – Barack Obama urged Cuba to embrace the free market in a landmark speech in Havana that championed economic liberty rather than political reform as the key to unleashing the potential of its people.

Ignoring calls to echo Ronald Reagan’s famous “tear down this wall” speech in Berlin, Obama drew another leaf from the cold war playbook and focused instead on the role of capitalism in transforming society from within. “Many suggested that I came here to Cuba to tear something down, but I am appealing to the young people to lift something up,” Obama told a handpicked audience of 1,000 in the Havana theatre that hosted the last US president to speak in the country, 88 years ago. Although calling for free elections and an end to the detention of dissidents, Obama’s trip has focused heavily on the growth of small business in Cuba as a sign of internal momentum for change that can circumvent political stalemate.(theguardian)…[+]