Shedding his jacket and tie, US Secretary of State John Kerry went for a walk around Old Havana Friday, checking out a Cuban cigar stand on a break from his historic visit.
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Mike East, a gunnery sergeant at the time, was one of three Marines who removed the flag over the embassy in 1961 after the United States broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba.
“The road of mutual isolation and estrangement that the U.S. and Cuba have been traveling is not the right one”, Kerry said in remarks during the flag-raising ceremony.
(You have selected {{activeQuestion.geoTarget.properties.userAnswer.features.length||0}}/{{activeQuestion.geoTarget.features.length}} regions.). The flag was raised by the same three marines, who lowered it 54 years ago.
Glantz says customers ask for Cubans often, but he’s anxious about something else if they become available for sell in the U.S. “Really the only thing I’m anxious about is the taxes that are going to be levied on the cigars”.
Morris said he had been stationed on the island for just four and a half months, but he “enjoyed the people and Cuba better than any place I’ve ever been”. Marco Rubio (Fla.), the son of Cuban immigrants-and even some Democrats for normalizing relations with the country despite its repressive regime.
“It would be equally unrealistic to expect normalizing relations to have in a short term in transformation impact, after all, Cuba’s future is for Cubans to shape”, he said. “The territory where torture occurs and people are held in legal limbo isn’t under Cuban jurisdiction”.
The embassy opening “is a government-to-government moment – with very limited space, by the way – which is why we are having the reception later in the day, in which we can have a cross-section of civil society, including some dissidents”, Kerry said.
Traveling with Kerry, Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont said lifting the embargo was the fastest way to bring to change to Cuba.
The poem called “Matters of the Sea“, or “Cosas del Mar”, refers to the 90 miles of water between Cuba and the U.S. that serves both to separate and unite people. US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro, brother of revolutionary leader Fidel, restored normal diplomatic relations between the countries in December 2014.
In his speech, delivered in English and partially in Spanish, the Secretary of State insisted that Cuba has nothing to fear from his country.
In the past, he conceded, US policies have not led to democracy. Ted Cruz of Texas tweeted, “Another Obama-Clinton-Kerry bad deal with neither help Cuban people nor secure America”. It reopened in 1977 in a scaled-back capacity known as the U.S. Interests Section under the protection of the Embassy of Switzerland.
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Former Cuban President Fidel Castro on Wednesday stated that the United States owes Cuba millions of dollars for the economic damages it caused through its 55-year-old trade embargo.
