Kerry, who will be on the ground in Cuba for just one day, said the road map covers a number of issues. The pomp and circumstance then focused on the opening of the Cuban Embassy in Washington, DC – the Cuban flag flying there for the first time since 1961 when diplomatic relations between the countries shut down.
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“The message is, No. 1, that we believe our engaging in direct diplomatic relations with the Cuban government being there, being able to interact with the people of Cuba, will in fact help the people of Cuba”, he said.
Sen. Marco Rubio on Wednesday ripped the Obama Administration’s opening of an embassy in Cuba saying that he would shut it down if elected president.
John Kerry will oversee the event, and will become the first secretary of state to visit Cuba in 60 years when his plane lands Friday morning.
Instead, Kerry will meet government opponents – along with an array of Cubans from entrepreneurs and independent journalists to human-rights activists and artists – – when he raises another flag later in the day at the U.S chief of mission’s residence. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) are among the U.S. officials who are scheduled to attend the ceremony alongside Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.
According to an Associated Press count that matches tallies by leading dissidents, more than 20 U.S. lawmakers have visited Cuba since February without meeting the opposition groups that were once obligatory for congressional delegations.
Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White dissident movement in Havana, was one of 90 people arrested Sunday for several hours after holding protests. The former Massachusetts senator said during an interview with Telemundo that he will meet with members of Cuban civil society during a reception that will take place after the flag raising ceremony.
The administration has defended its decision to upgrade Cuba, and Kerry said that ultimately the decision rests with him. The Cuban government has given no indication it is willing to provide compensation, though President Raúl Castro said in April during the Summit of the Americas in Panama that he is willing to discuss “everything”.
“With a more open relationship between our two countries, we can work together to expand economic opportunity, support democratic reforms, and strengthen human rights”.
For more than fifty years relations between the United States and Cuba were anything but agreeable, something that residents of this area know all too well.
The pact officially took effect July 20.
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“Today, we are not going to the trenches, we are climbing out of them, not to launch new battles, but to try to ensure there are no more battles”.
