Special Coverage: Cuban Embassy Opens in Washington DC

The United States and Cuba restored full diplomatic relations Monday after more than five decades of frosty relations rooted in the Cold War.

In Washington, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez presided over a flag raising ceremony at Havana’s mission.

An honour guard in white uniforms marched out of the building in the U.S. capital on Monday to hoist the standard watched by a cheering crowd, only hours after the flag was also put in place at the US State Department. But the US Congress would have to vote on the issue.

DeLaurentis is set to be among the small group of USA diplomats – including those who were involved in the negotiations previous year – attending the Cuban embassy opening on Monday.

In presence of hundreds of people, for the first time since 1961, the Cuban flag was raised at its embassy premises in Washington.

He said the return of Guantanamo, the lifting of the trade embargo and USA respect for Cuban sovereignty would he critical to moving on from past hostility.

He said earlier this year, “Their view of human rights isn’t just different than ours, they are flat-out wrong and immoral in their views”.

Cuba’s flag was raised at the country’s Washington embassy at midnight local time – marking the start of a new era in US-Cuba relations.

The State Department formally upgraded its limited diplomatic mission on the historic Malecon waterfront in Havana into a full-fledged embassy, and Cuba did the same with a stately mansion it owns in the Adams Morgan neighborhood, a center of Washington’s Latino immigrant community.

Obama’s efforts at engagement were frustrated for years by Cuba’s imprisonment of Alan Gross, a US Agency for global Development contractor, on espionage charges.

Although the Interests Section in Havana won’t see the pomp and circumstance of a flag-raising on Monday, workers there have already drilled holes on the exterior to hang signage flown in from the US, and arranged to print new business cards and letterhead that say “Embassy” instead of “Interests Section”.

The historic turnaround between two bitter adversaries has come at breakneck speed after Obama and Raul Castro in December agreed to normalize ties, as Washington acknowledged that its policy of trying to effect change by isolating Cuba had failed.

Senator and 2016 presidential hopeful Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, vowed on Sunday to end diplomatic ties with an “anti-American communist tyranny”.

“It’s hard, because there’s been so much mistrust between the two sides, maybe even dislike, and so many things that Cuba feels put upon: Guantanamo, the migration policy”, said Vicki Huddleston, former head of US Interests Section in Havana, which has provided consular services in the absence of an embassy. Curious Cubans clustered around the forest of flagpoles at the front of the embassy, snapping photos as USA tourists posed for selfies in front of the building.

Despite the re-establishing of ties, there are still issues between the countries that need to resolved.