President Obama and his family just returned from visiting the Americas—specifically Cuba and Argentina. Both countries had a rather hostile atmosphere towards his arrival, thus making his arrival noteworthy and absolutely necessary.

In Cuba (think: our Communist Caribbean neighbor that we can never visit), 526 critics of the government were detained in the two weeks leading up to the visit. No doubt that Obama would address human rights and political prisoners with President Castro.

In Argentina, Obama arrived on March 24th, which coincides with the 40th anniversary of the country’s last coup d’état and the beginning of a brutal dictatorship made possible by the US (think: angry Argentineans). But Obama has been the bigger person in the entire situation by attempting to revive a healthy relationship with Cuba and offer an apology in the name of the USA in Argentina.

“Cultivo una rosa blanca,” Obama said, reciting a poem by Cuba's national hero José Martí. “I plant a white rose.” In Argentina he cast three white roses into the water at Rio de la Plata to pay homage to the victims of the dictatorship. With both threads of sentimentality, Obama buried the last remnants of the Cold War in the Americas. Despite USA's direct involvement in the suffering of many people in the Americas, it is time to accept the truth, repent and attempt reparation through justice.

In Cuba, there was a palpable sense of enmity between Obama and Castro. When Obama touched the subject of political prisoners, the Cuban president said, “Political prisoners? Show me a list of names, and I’ll free them!” Human rights groups quickly produced rosters of prisoners, yet there is not much hope that Castro's words were sincere; they were rather a mocking at Obama. In response, Castro criticized human rights issues in the US. He said that because the American government does not provide its citizens with free education, universal healthcare, and equal pay, then it is in no position to impose its ideologies on Cuba.

"The life expectancy of Cubans is equivalent to the United States despite its being a very poor country because they have access to healthcare," Obama lectured in Argentina, reflecting on his Cuban visit. "But you drive around Havana and this economy is not working." No matter what Obama could have said in Cuba and whichever human rights groups he met with, he could not change much for ordinary Cubans. Other than some more access to WiFi, Cuba has a long path ahead of itself towards acceptable policy on the island.

Open dialogue with its main enemy on its own soil in almost 90 years is a huge step towards such future. As of now, Obama expects to see Cuba lifts its trade embargo as an incentive for mutual economic development.

In Argentina, Obama was also the first American president to visit in 16 years. This was his first encounter with the newly elected pro-business, right-winged Mauricio Macri. For Macri, this was a chance to show the human rights activists sympathy for their cause. During the "Dirty War," tens of thousands of people were tortured and killed. Their babies were cruelly abducted to be either killed or raised by military families. None of this could have been possible without Henry Kissinger's involvement and his encouragement for the US to support the military junta. Before Obama's arrival, Macri asked for a declassification of documents.

Document declassification before has revealed shocking collaboration between the American government and the military regimes in Chile, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Declassification of more Argentinian documents will undoubtedly uncover the same kind of complicity, yet it will help the relatives of the disappeared to mount criminal cases against military and police officers during the reign. In a sense, it will help heal the wound in Argentina. Obama's agreement to reveal such documents shows a broader move towards transparency internationally. As he was in Argentina, he received news of the terrorist attacks in Brussels and he vowed to help Brussels with any information that the US currently has hold of.

In a lecture to "young leaders" in Argentina, he made his ideology very obvious: "I guess to make a broader point, so often in the past, there’s been a sharp division between left and right, between capitalist and communist or socialist." Having spoken with a Communist and a right-winged president, Obama contemplated the future, "I think for your generation, you should be practical and just choose from what works. You don’t have to worry about whether it neatly fits into socialist theory or capitalist theory—you should just decide what works."

Throughout the entire trip Barack Obama was incredibly politically correct and appealed to a broader audience of distinct political views with his transparent politics.