Washington severed diplomatic ties with Havana as relations soured soon after the 1959 Cuban Revolution.
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US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro, brother of revolutionary leader Fidel, restored normal diplomatic relations between the countries in December 2014. They paired their praise with calls for the United States to lift the 53-year-old trade embargo and allow easier travel between the two countries.
“We agree with what Kerry said”, said Julio Garcia, a 51-year-old mechanic.
But, he warned Cuba’s communist leaders, “the United States will always remain a champion of democratic principles and reforms”.
Marking a milestone in the United States’ historic rapprochement with Cuba, Kerry gave the cue to hoist the Stars and Stripes over the glass-and-concrete building on the Havana waterfront.
In a minutely choreographed event, the flag was delivered by the three US marines, now in their 70s, who had taken it down in 1961 when president Dwight Eisenhower announced he was breaking relations with Fidel Castro’s regime. He says Cuba is not a place where people are subject to racial discrimination or police abuse, and says Cuba has no control of another country’s territory where people are tortured – a reference to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo in eastern Cuba.
Kerry will attend a reception at the chief of mission’s residence later Friday where he is expected to meet with Cuban activists. The second will tackle more complex topics like the establishment of direct airline flights and U.S. telecommunications deals with Cuba.
Castro said the U.S. owed a huge debt to Cuba, including damages reaching millions of dollars due to the trade embargo.
The U.S. embassy in Havana has been reopened after over 54 years.
In the past, he conceded, United States policies had not led to democracy.
Kerry said in a series of interviews with Spanish-language press Wednesday that the day would move the U.S.-Cuban relationship into a series of detailed talks about topics including “law enforcement, maritime security, education, health, telecommunications”.
Back in the United States, Obama’s conservative opponents had harsh words on the thawing of the Cold War conflict.
Friday’s flag-raising ceremony marks a milestone in the relations between the two nations, but tensions remain.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., a longtime critic of the Cuban government, said Thursday that Kerry’s visit was part of his “capitulation tour” of the world.
“There is no way Congress will lift the embargo if we are not making progress on issues of conscience”, he said.
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But he also argued that “Cuba’s future is for Cubans to shape”, adding that the responsibility “rests, as it should, not with any outside entity, but exclusively with the citizens of this country“.
