On January 4, 1961, James Tracy, Mike East and Larry Morris walked out of the U.S. Embassy in Havana and in a silent ceremony, in front of the hundreds of Cuban gathered outside in the hopes of obtaining a visa to the U.S., took down the U.S. flag for what they assumed would be the last time in Cuba.
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Ordinary Cubans will cheer, U.S. business executives will network and Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with Cuba’s foreign minister, the country’s Roman Catholic archbishop and a hand-picked group of dissidents.
Klobuchar says, “It’s not only important symbolically, it also means that when Americans do get to visit Cuba, we need to lift the travel ban, that they’ll have an embassy if they need help”.
Although imbued with symbolism, few expect Kerry’s trip to Havana to lead to progress on the the significant issues which still divide the countries, including the economic embargo which has suffocated the Cuban economy and the Guantánamo Bay naval facility, which the US uses to indefinitely detain terror suspects without due legal process.
Mr Castro said the US owed Cuba money because of the trade embargo the US imposed on the communist-run island in 1960.
The world’s media are gathering for the occasion. Instead, the activists will be invited to a separate flag-raising ceremony Friday afternoon at the US diplomatic residence.
“That (reparations), I think, is a non-starter”. Standing next to Kerry at the State Department last month, Rodriguez made clear the full normalization of ties between the United States and Cuba would be impossible as long as the blockade remains. But a thaw in U.S.-Cuban relations may make a difference. Geoff Thale, the program director of the Washington Office on Latin America, said the State Department was faced with the hard task of maintaining good relations with the Cuban government while continuing its support of the dissidents and other members of the island’s emerging civil society.
“This is the high point of my career”, Polt said as she showed off the new embassy sign hidden away from prying eyes in the building’s basement. “I really never thought I would see this in my lifetime”.
Castro granted Chesimard, a convicted murderer wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, political asylum in Cuba, where she has remained ever since escaping from a life sentence in 1979 from a New Jersey prison.
Fidel Castro’s 89th birthday on Thursday is being celebrated in Cuba with a series of cultural events and tributes, some of which were already held on Wednesday to coincide with worldwide Youth Day.
U.S. diplomats coordinated closely with Cuban officials to plan the Kerry visit and spoke positively about the working relationship they had developed with their local counterparts.
“I’m optimistic but cautious”, said Rolando Mendez, a state worker walking outside the new U.S. Embassy on Thursday.
He said the US owes Cuba indemnifications “that rise to numerous millions of dollars” for damage caused by the embargo.
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According to excerpts of his speech released in advance, the Florida Republican senator will say that he believes Obama’s push for a nuclear deal with Iran and his outreach to the Cuban government in Havana “represent the convergence of almost every flawed strategic, moral, and economic notion” of his foreign policy.
