Raising a flag, like lowering it, is a routine act for the Marines that carry it out. They raised it in 2015.].
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“I think we’re ending one phase and entering another”, Robert Muse, a U.S. lawyer specializing in Cuba told Reuters.
Overnight, workers attached a sign reading “Embassy of the United States of America” above the entrance of the seaside building, accompanied by a U.S. seal.
Already for weeks, Cubans have been lining up at the embassy, which officially opened in July, for visas to visit the U.S. or to move permanently to live with relatives. But the flag has been kept under wraps for the arrival of Kerry. Ortega was instrumental, along with Pope Francis, in the success of almost two years of secret bilateral negotiations that led to this day.
The American building was only redesignated as a U.S. Embassy last month.
[A new mission for U.S. diplomats in Cuba].
He was among a group of Cubans who cheered as the flag-raising symbolically re-opened the embassy.
The former Florida governor says in a statement that Kerry’s decision not to invite Cuban dissidents to the embassy flag-raising ceremony is “especially insulting”. Members of Congress, including several Cuban-American lawmakers, oppose the new policy because they believe it rewards the Castro regime with economic relief without requiring human rights improvements.
But US officials warn this is just another step on a long path.
“We knew we were closing it up, but we had no idea as to all the particulars behind it”, said then-Gunnery Sergeant Francis East, another Marine who participated in the flag lowering.
In interviews this week, Kerry characterized the ceremony as a “government-to-government” affair that wouldn’t have the space to accommodate everyone. We’re opening an embassy.
Instead, Kerry will likely come across silently by using activists later tha day.
[An online Cuban revolution: Tweets from 16th Street] .
On Friday, the United States will formally reopen an embassy in Cuba.
“But I am convinced…”
Cuban officials had no say over the guest list for either event, and the US is hosting two events to include as many people as possible, a State Department official said in Washington earlier this week, on condition of anonymity.
The people of Cuba “would be best served by a genuine democracy”, he said, but added that it was “unrealistic” to expect Cuba to make such a transition anytime soon. Marco Rubio said in a statement Wednesday.
The United States also continues to hold the congressionally-mandated embargo on Cuba despite having normalized relations. Karen Bass (Calif.), Steve Cohen (Tenn.), Barbara Lee (Calif.) and Jim McGovern (Mass.).
That restriction has been removed as has the cordon of Cuban government security guards that were placed around the old Interests Section.
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Cuba wants the United States to end the embargo, return the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in eastern Cuba, and halt radio and television signals beamed into Cuba.
