Soon after Kerry heads home Friday evening, the Cuban and U.S. diplomats who negotiated the embassy reopening will launch full-time into the next phase of detente: expanding economic ties between the two nations with measures like direct flights and mail service.
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The US and Cuba officially restored their diplomatic ties last month with reopening of the Cuban Embassy in Washington.
But it has, and today Secretary of State John Kerry made history in Havana, Cuba, as he reopened the U.S. Embassy there.
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But a live call for change from a serving U.S. official speaking in Havana – Kerry is the first secretary of state to visit since 1945 – was remarkable for its bluntness and the national spotlight in which it came.
The Stars and Stripes have not flown over the glass-and-concrete building on the Havana waterfront since January 3, 1961, the day the United States severed ties with Cuba at the height of the Cold War.
But he also warned that the US would not stop pressing for political change in Cuba. “Eventually in the future I think good things are going to come for the Cuban people, but at the same time, you’re dealing with the “serial killer”, you’re dealing with people, they’re not politicians”. He said when he received a call in June from the U.S. Interests Section and was asked to write and read a poem for the occasion, he burst into tears.
US President Barack Obama and Cuban Leader Raul Castro, agreed last December to start talking again about the relationship between the two countries. “Activists are invited to a reception later, at the U.S. ambassador’s residence”.
Underlining the sticking points still complicating relations between the two countries, Fidel Castro said in an essay published in Cuban state media Thursday – his 89th birthday – that the United States owes Cuba “many millions of dollars” because of the US trade embargo on the island. Bush’s statement also took shots at Kerry for not allowing inviting Cuban political dissidents to the flag raising.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, blasted the decision in a foreign policy speech delivered in New York Friday morning.
He added that the Marines vowed back then they would return to raise the flag, although nobody could have imagined how many years would pass.
He is formally re-opening the American embassy there more than half a century after it was closed. The Cubans have counterclaims against the U.S. for economic damage stemming from its decadeslong embargo on the island nation.
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The rhetoric from the leader of the Cuban revolution, and the face of anti-U.S. resistance, is not unexpected. According to a U.S. State Deparment blog post, he says “It was a touching moment”.
