The opening ceremony for the US embassy in Cuba will be delayed until Kerry can travel to Havana, but the embassy will be fully functional in the meantime.
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“But we understand that Cuba has strong feelings about it”, Kerry said, as he confirmed he would visit Havana on August 14. The USA embassy in Cuba was shut in 1961, when we severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, and was later reopened in 1977 under an Interests Section status, following an agreement between President Jimmy Carter and Fidel Castro.
Despite pledges of goodwill and mutual respect, ghosts of past animosity hung over the events.
“We are taking an historic and long overdue step in the right direction”, Kerry said, assuring the world and Cuba that the USA will do its part in the process.
With regard to the economic embargo, Kerry recalled that only Congress may lift it and said he was confident that as the bilateral relationship develops in these next weeks and months and years and hopefully not too many years those who oppose lifting the embargo will cease to do so. The Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodriguez participated, along with a delegation of 500 guests, in the ceremony where the Cuban flag was raised over the new embassy, followed by a meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry, in the State Department, where the Cuban flag has also been deployed, symbolizing the restoration of diplomatic relations.
Thus, he said work would begin apace on normalisation.
A diplomatic freeze that stretched back more than five decades, outlasting the Cold War and nine USA presidencies, officially ended Monday as Cuba and the United States reopened embassies.
“This milestone does not signify an end to the many differences that still separate our governments”, Kerry said. The two countries’s Interest Section social media pages both switched their accounts to read “embassy”. He added the US and Cuba had agreed to have conversations about fugitives and law enforcement. She urged the U.S.to seize this opportunity to help improve Cuba’s human rights record.
Monday’s events saw the United States and Cuba exchange embassies for the first time in half a century.
The Confederate battle flag came down July 10 after a vote by the South Carolina Legislature to remove it after the shooting of nine African Americans on June 17 at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston by a white gunman inspired by the racist hate that the flag symbolized.
In Little Havana, raging protestors say the embassies are just a symbolic step forward. A pair of officers stood on each corner around the building, smiling and wishing “buenos dias” to passers-by.
Conrad Tribble, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, tweeted shortly after midnight that he had phoned the State Department.
Obama has sought engagement with Cuba since he first took office and has progressively loosened restrictions on travel and remittances to the island. “Cuba si, Fidel no”, yelled a much smaller contingent of counter-demonstrators.
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The new poll also found that 58 percent of Americans approve of President Barack Obama’s handling of the US relationship with Havana while 40 disapprove.
