Pope Francis heads to Cuba after months of secret diplomacy

September 18, 2015 21:36

When Pope Francis lands in Cuba on Saturday he will find a changing country. He may well take some pride in those transformations since they came about in part through the Pope's own involvement in secret diplomacy worthy of a spy thriller.

President Obama announced last December that the United States and Cuba would restore diplomatic relations. Since then, the island has been buzzing with the possibilities of a new era.

Just this week, the United Nations announced that Cuban President Raul Castro would travel to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly. It will be his first visit to the U.S. in more than a half century. And U.S. and Cuban officials have said that President Obama could visit the Communist-run island next year, if the two countries progress sufficiently in normalization talks.

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