""The BBC's Barbara Plett Usher in Washington says that although Mr Obama has the authority to normalise relations with Cuba and increase the flow of people and money, only Congress can lift the embargo.

The president still faces strong opposition from some in Congress who view the Cuban regime as a repressive dictatorship, she says.

Cuban-American Republican Senator Marco Rubio said he would do all he could to "unravel" the plan.

Fellow Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham said the shift in policy reflected "America and the values it stands for in retreat and decline"""