US, Cuba restore full diplomatic ties

One bitter holdover of the Cold War slipped into the history books at 12:01 a.m. Monday, when the United States and Cuba re-established diplomatic relations. A worker in a short-sleeve shirt slipped Cuba’s single-star flag into the line of national colors at the State Department’s C Street entrance.

Rodriguez is to meet later with Secretary of State John Kerry and address reporters at a joint news conference.

With 51 Americans and 300 Cuban employees, the U.S. Interests Section is one of the largest diplomatic missions of any country in Cuba.

In October 2014, for the 23rd year in a row, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to condemn Washington’s blockade on Cuba.

Back in June, President Obama removed Cuba from the terror list setting the groundwork to create new economic ties between the two countries.

Diplomats in Havana are ready to open their doors as well.

But both nations have cautioned that this is only a beginning, warning overcoming decades of enmity is not easy.

But Juan Peña, a Cuban exile, says he disagrees with the move. “Building confidence and trust will be critical to the ability to move forward”, he said.

But while diplomacy is being restored, some differences still remain between the two nations.

The Obama administration has said that it will not immediately announce a new ambassador – a nomination some congressional opponents of the Cuba have said they would try to block.

It continued to function a diplomatic mission till January 1961, when Washington determined to sever ties with Cuba after revolutionary Fidel Castro toppled Batista and got here to energy.

However many Cubans have praised their government for enacting the changes and welcome the improved relations with the United States.

It will take a long time to win over the proponents of that view, as well as soothe anger over compensation claimed for property owned by Americans and which were seized in Cuba’s 1959 revolution. The two first met in April during the Summit of the Americas in Panama, where they worked on normalizing relations and reopening the embassies.

In addition, the United States wants to secure the return of a number of American fugitives now living in Cuba, while Havana wants President Obama to use his executive powers to end the 53-year-old economic embargo, which currently requires Congressional approval, and which the Cubans have described as the main obstacle to the normalisation of relations.

Cuban diplomats serving in the United States complained of similar harassment at the hands of American minders.

Cuba’s historic flag will again fly atop the almost 100-year-old neoclassical mansion in the Adams Morgan district of Washington that has housed Cuba’s Interests Section, basically a pared-down embassy then President Fidel Castro and his USA counterpart Jimmy Carter agreed to establish in the late 1970s in lieu of embassies.

The U.S. delegation will be headed by Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson.