Josefina Vidal, the director of U.S. affairs at the Cuban foreign ministry, said the opening of the embassy is more than just symbolic.
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Like other dissidents, he was not invited to the flag-raising ceremony but he did meet with Kerry at the US embassy residence.
Cubans have embraced Washington’s policy change toward their country and are looking forward to the historic day of the US embassy reopening ceremony in Havana on Friday, Havana’s residents told Sputnik. “It remains an unyielding dictatorship, a tragic example of the folly of communism, and an affront to the conscience of the free nations of the Western Hemisphere”.
He said Washington owes Cuba indemnifications “that rise to numerous millions of dollars” for damage caused by the embargo. He has not been back to Cuba since he moved to the U.S. Therefore, communist government understood that American embargo and the isolation of Cuba’s economy must be managed in a way that the revolutionary ideals could be preserved by Cuba’s new generation that no longer remembers why or how the two countries became enemies.
Cuban leader Raul Castro and US President Barack Obama agreed to restore ties in December previous year.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry staunchly stood along Cuba’s iconic Malecon promenade Friday, presiding over a flag-raising ceremony that coincided with the island opening its first American embassy in 54 years.
“I was there a couple months ago seeing old friends, seeing all the great things that make Cuba so interesting”.
“We have diplomatic relations; now we can get to the real work”, said Wayne Smith, a retired U.S. diplomat who witnessed the closing of the U.S. Embassy in 1961.
“Of course we Cubans aspire to more democracy, more liberty and more of everything, because the truth is that life here is really hard”, said Roger Granado, a 44-year-old masseur who lives in the working-class Cerro neighborhood in south Havana. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry officially reopened the U.S. Embassy in Cuba.
QUINTANA: We’ve allowed the Cuban government to really dictate the terms of this, kind of, like, how our diplomats are going to operate on the island. As the flag was raised, there were loud cheers and applause from the crowd of U.S. and Cuban dignitaries and longtime proponents of U.S.-Cuban engagement, and from people watching from neighbouring balconies.
From 1961 until 1977, the embassy was protected by the Swiss but remained unused, collecting dust as monument to a tortured relationship between Cuba and the United States.
The United States is seeking the return of fugitives granted asylum in Cuba and backs the claims of Americans whose property was nationalized in the years after Fidel Castro seized power in a 1959 revolution. “It’s time to unfurl our flags and let the world know we wish each other well”. Herrero highlighted the Cuban-American connection, which was absent in the story.
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During Obama’s press conference, Cuba made its own announcement in the form of a 700-word declaration posted on Granma, the official organ of the Cuban Communist Party, saying, “To achieve normalization [of diplomatic relations] it will be essential also that the territory illegally occupied by the Guantanamo Naval Base is returned”.
