Barack Obama’s arrival in Cuba tomorrow will mark the first visit by a United States president to the island since Calvin Coolidge went in 1928. His trip follows the reopening of diplomatic relations with Cuba on December 17, 2014 and various other steps taken to normalize relations — a welcome change after decades of hostility towards the Cuban government that include an ongoing economic blockade, sponsored invasions, and terrorist attacks.

So far, everything seems to indicate a warm reception for Obama from most Cubans. Many of them will welcome him for taking the first steps towards righting the wrongs of past US foreign policy towards Cuba. But he is likely to be received with reservations, if not outright hostility, by pro-US right-wing dissidents on the island who have misgivings about the attempt at reconciliation with the Cuban government.

The politics of this right wing — both on the island and abroad — that has long curried the favor of Washington elites is rooted in a perspective called “Platismo.” The origin of the term goes back to 1901, when the first constituent assembly of the island was forced to accept an amendment to the Cuban constitution authored by US senator Orville Platt giving the United States the legal right to intervene in the country’s internal affairs.