Three U.S. Marines who lowered the flag at the U.S. Embassy in Havana more than five decades ago were given a position of honor at Friday’s ceremony to raise the Stars and Stripes once again.
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In May, Cuba was officially removed from the United States list of state sponsors of Terrorism.
“Kerry’s message was that the United States would continue to support democracy and pressing the subject of human rights in Cuba“, said Martha Beatriz Roque, one of 75 former political prisoners jailed in what is known as the Black Spring of 2003.
Opening the doors of the U.S. Embassy in Cuba will do little to bring democracy to the Communist nation, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) warned on Friday, as the Obama administration raised the flag at the diplomatic facility in Havana.
“The current U.S. policy on Cuba will strengthen and legitimize the dictatorship and is undercutting Cuban democracies”, he said. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was shutting down the diplomatic compound and pulling Americans out, a response to the downward spiral in U.S. relations with the new government of Fidel Castro.
A number of Democratic and Republican lawmakers are working together to push for legislation that would ease parts of the trade embargo, and there are powerful business and agricultural interests behind opening up relations with Cuba.
Not everyone is happy about the new relationship between the US and Cuba. The United States Army Brass Quintet played The Star-Spangled Banner and the flag rose alongside the building overlooking the Malecon seaside promenade, the Associated Press said.
Kerry said he would meet with dissidents during a reception at the chief of mission’s residence following the embassy ceremony, after it was demanded he explain how normalized relations will improve human rights standards. Marco Rubio openly criticized the move with Cuba on Friday.
“The time is now to reach out to one another as two peoples who are no longer enemies or rivals but neighbors”, said Kerry, who oversaw the event that followed a similar flag-raising ceremony last month outside the Cuban Embassy in Washington.
President Obama and Democratic supporters, including Hillary Clinton, have said that the time has come to reopen ties with Cuba.
In Late January 2015, Cuban President Raul Castro called on the United States to return the Guantanamo Bay area to Cuba.
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He made his address before an audience of Cuban and US diplomats on the embassy grounds and millions of islanders watching and listening live. “Let’s put the past behind us, let bygones be bygones, that’s all nice, but this is not a two-way street here, it’s just a one-way street in full speed by the U.S. and nothing coming back”, said Nicolas Gutierrez.
