Fidel Castro did not directly mention the restored relations, though he made several critical references to the U.S.
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We do know that there are people in the left who buy this nonsense that Cuba is a victim of the U.S. Only a day earlier, President Dwight D. Eisenhower had announced that diplomatic relations between the two countries would cease – the coup de grace to what had been an increasingly frosty relationship. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry walks at the “Finca Vijia”, the former home of late U.S. writer Ernest Hemingway, now a museum in San Francisco de Paula, east of Havana, Cuba, Friday, August 14, 2015.
This long overdue rapprochement has the potential to bring about a positive and welcome sea- change in the dynamics of hemispheric relations.
Washington “frequently flouts the rules”, warned Esteban Morales, founder and honorary director of the University of Havana’s Center for Hemispheric and U.S. Studies. Cuba’s future, he said, “is for Cubans to shape”.
After the ceremony, Kerry met with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. “We have profound differences on national security, human rights and political models”, Rodriguez said. The State Department said it had limited space at what it called a government-to-government event, and dissidents were invited to an afternoon flag-raising at the home of the embassy’s chief of mission. The U.S. raised its flag in Havana then, too, though saving the formal ceremony for Kerry’s visit.
The US and Cuba reopened embassies in their respective capitals on 20 July for the first time in more than 50 years.
Despite the detente, normalization of relations remains a distant goal.
Fidel Castro marked his 89th birthday this week with a newspaper column repeating assertions that the United States owes socialist Cuba “numerous millions of dollars” for damages caused by its decades-long embargo.
Glantz says customers ask for Cubans often, but he’s anxious about something else if they become available for sell in the U.S. “Really the only thing I’m anxious about is the taxes that are going to be levied on the cigars”.
During the historical event, Kerry made a statement calling for an end to “mutual isolation”, stating that the two countries have “stopped being prisoners of history”. Marco Rubio and 2016 presidential contender Jeb Bush spoke up against restoring diplomatic ties with the Caribbean nation Friday.
Cuban officials are still demanding the trade embargo put in place by the U.S.be completely lifted.
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Leahy says he’s confident that over time, democratic policies will begin to emerge in Cuba as more and more Cubans gain access to the Internet. While many support the opening, others have joined some U.S. lawmakers in charging that the administration gave up the principal U.S. leverage in Cuba and got little in return from the repressive government.
