The symbolic moment served as a picture-perfect coda to 8 months of quick changes since the December 17 rapprochement announcement 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.
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The embassy was closed 54 years ago when the Eisenhower Administration broke off diplomatic ties with the government which was run by Fidel Castro.
His words were translated precisely into Spanish and broacast live on Cuban state television. The United States top diplomat arrived in Havana at 9:00 a.m. on board a State Department plane.
Cuban artist Bernardo Navarro, whose work is exhibited at the Cuban Studies Center, said his paintings are political caricatures that depict the “estranged love affair” between the United States and Cuba.
Cuban dissidents have expressed concern that the thaw between the two governments will leave them out in the cold.
Numerous invited guests took selfies by a new sign that read “Embassy of the United States“.
US Secretary of State John Kerry declared a new era in relations with Cuba as the Stars and Stripes flag was raised on the island, but stark differences remain between the two countries over issues such as democracy and human rights.
According to the Pew Research Center, however, Americans are less confident that Cuba will move toward a democratic form of government, which Kerry stressed as an important shift in his speech during the ceremony.
As a U.S. Army brass band played the American national anthem, the three elderly Marines who last lowered the flag here in January 1961 handed a new, folded banner to the young members of the new contingent of Marine guards, who raised it and saluted. It has not responded to Obama’s actions with measures that would allow ordinary Cubans to benefit from them, such as allowing low-cost imports and exports by Cuban entrepreneurs looking to do business with the U.S.
Josefina Vidal, Cuba’s lead negotiator in talks on restoring diplomatic relations, told Reuters that Cuba’s sovereignty was not negotiable and Cuba has no interest in placating its enemies in the United States.
During his daylong visit, Kerry was to meet political activists and others at an afternoon reception at the official U.S. residence in Havana. “The handshakes, the fraternal regards, the raising of the flags, that’ll end on August. 14”.
“[Talking] about going back to Cuba and raising the flag and [James] says, ‘Would you go?’ And I said, ‘Jim, I’d pay my own way if I have to, ‘” Morris said.
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“There’s a sense of an opening possibility only – and we’re exploring whether or not we can find a series of steps that we agree on”, Kerry said of worldwide conversations that include the Russians and Saudis alongside the U.S. “Clearly everybody is seized on this issue right now, because of the threat of ISIS, Dayesh, that is growing, and the disorder and catastrophe that Syria has become”. He is also a former governor of Florida, home to the biggest Cuban emigre population.
