But on Friday, the US hoisted the Stars and Stripes over its newly reopened American Embassy in Cuba, the culmination of a remarkable behind-the-scenes diplomatic manoeuvre designed to end more than half a century of hostility.
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Three Marines who took part in lowering the U.S. flag when the embassy was closed in 1961 handed over the new flag to Marines who raised it on Friday.
Kerry also recalled his visit to Vietnam last week to celebrate the 20 years since the normalization of relations between the US and the Asian country as an example of President Obama’s conciliatory policy.
“We are gathered here because our leaders made a courageous decision to stop being prisoners of history”, Secretary of State John Kerry declared.
While Kerry declared “the time has come for us to move in a more promising direction”, GOPers repeated their criticism that opening the embassy rewards the Castro regime while human rights and freedom for the Cuban people are being put on the back-burner.
Crowds are expected to surround the United States’ seaside diplomatic mission when Kerry unveils the new U.S. Embassy sign and a Marine guard raises the flag.
Kerry later shed his jacket and tie to take a stroll around Old Havana, checking out a stand selling Cuban cigars and humidors as he got a tour of the colonial district, surrounded by bodyguards, journalists and curious onlookers. And in this case, the reopening of our embassies is important on two levels: “people to people, and government to government”.
For more than fifty years relations between the United States and Cuba were anything but agreeable, something that residents of this area know all too well. “If they challenge their own citizens on the issue of human rights, you will hear us loudly and clearly taking them on with respect to that”.
Obama has called for the repeal of legislation that bars most U.S. trade with Cuba.
Mr. Castro said the U.S owed Cuba money because of the trade embargo America imposed on the communist-run island in 1960.
Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar said 50 years of the embargo have not secured U.S. interests in Cuba, but have disadvantaged American businesses by restricting commerce with a market of 11 million people just 144 kilometers from U.S. shores.
In a speech following the raising, Secretary of State John Kerry called the event “a truly historic moment” while also stating that the U.S. still supports democratic political reform in Cuba. We have the photos to prove it. Cuba is not going to change until the Cuban government changes.
However, Kerry added that past U.S. policies have not led to democracy and that “Cuba’s future is for Cubans to shape”. US President Barack Obama has so far failed to deliver on his campaign promise of closing the detention camp at the base amid opposition from the Republican-controlled Congress.
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Kerry will meet Cuban dissidents at the U.S. embassy residence in Havana later on Friday.
