President Obama this week is going where no U.S. president has gone in since Calvin Coolidge in 1928 – to Cuba. "My visit will be an opportunity to keep moving forward," the president says. "I'll meet with President [Raul] Castro to discuss how we can continue normalizing relations, including making it easier to trade and easier for Cubans to access the Internet and start their own businesses." Obama last year began restoring ties with the Communist-led island 90 miles south of Florida, ending a 54-year diplomatic freeze and easing the way for visits by more Americans. The U.S. Embassy in Havana, the capital, reopened last August as Secretary of State John Kerry spoke at a flag-raising ceremony.

Now Obama wants "to advance our progress and efforts that can improve the lives of the Cuban people," he says on Twitter. The schedule Monday and Tuesday is likely to include meetings with activists, entrepreneurs and “Cubans from different walks of life,” says Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser. "I certainly think he would want to look for some opportunity to address the Cuban people." First Lady Michelle Obama accompanies him on the visit, followed by two days in Argentina to meet that South American country's new president.

Only Congress can lift a long trade embargo on Cuba, and there's still deep opposition to doing that. "My family has seen first-hand the evil and oppression in Cuba," says Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a presidential candidate. "The president should be advocating for a free Cuba." This week's two-day visit is aimed partly at sending a message to senators and representatives. "He is proving to Congress that the president still has a lot of executive authority to change foreign policy," foreign affairs analyst Pam Falk of CBS News says.

President says: "We still have differences with the Cuban government that I will raise directly America will always stand for human rights around the world."

Critic says: "It's a rogue regime and the American executive is treating it as a government with which you can do business and have normal diplomatic relations. That’s kind of naïve." – Xavier Suraez, Miami-Dade County commissioner and past Miami mayor

British paper says: "The symbolism of a US president setting foot in Havana for the first time in 88 years will be hard to overstate." – David Smith, The Guardian (London newspaper)