State Secretary John Kerry reopened on Friday the US embassy in the Cuban capital Havana after it has remained closed for 54 years. He says Cuba is not a place where people are subject to racial discrimination or police abuse, and says Cuba has no control of another country’s territory where people are tortured – a reference to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo in eastern Cuba. The ceremonial raising of the flag was done by the same U.S. marines who retrieved it in 1961.
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But he also warned that the US would not stop pressing for political change in Cuba.
Congress holds the key to a real new beginning in bilateral ties, however, as it would have to change laws to lift the 54-year-old U.S. trade embargo on the Communist island nation.
The historically charged photo-op put a coda on the historic rapprochement announced on December 17 by US President Barack Obama and Cuban counterpart Raul Castro, which paved the way for the two countries to reopen their embassies on July 20.
Kerry was due to meet privately later with Cuban dissidents, who long counted Washington as their main ally and have voiced concern the new thaw will leave them out in the cold.
Fifty-four years ago, three young U.S. Marines were entrusted with the solemn task of lowering the American flag at the U.S. Embassy in Havana for what they thought would be the last time.
Cuban leader Fidel Castro said, in an open letter released on Thursday, the US owed millions of dollars to Cuba as a result of the 53-year-long embargo.
The official said Kerry looks forward to seeing many members of Cuban civil society, including dissidents, at that event.
Leahy was in Cuba on Friday as the United States flag was raised at the new embassy.
“Currently Cuba allows U.S. products in agriculture and in humanitarian aid, so those opportunities now exist for local businesses but not anything beyond that”, said Stimpson.
“I’m amazed by the spirit of these people after so many years”, said Shelton, who visited Cuba in March as part of a delegation from Louisiana.
“We will talk very directly about a sort of road map toward real, full normalization”, Kerry said.
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“Like many other governments in and outside this hemisphere, we will continue to urge the Cuban government to fulfill its obligations under the UN and Inter-American human rights covenants, obligations shared by the United States and every other country in the Americas”, he said. Washington severed diplomatic ties with Havana as relations soured soon after the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Only a little more than half of people in Mexico approve of the renewed relationship between Cuba and the U.S. and of the U.S. ending its trade embargo.
