US Diplomats in Cuba No Longer Need Travelling Permit

“That is not now envisioned on the secretary’s schedule”, according to the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record.

Kerry will see his Cuban counterpart, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.

The U.S. and Cuba officially restored diplomatic relations July 20, as part of the normalization initiative President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced in December.

Kerry will be accompanied to Havana by a number of U.S. officials, including Senators Patrick Leahy, Amy Klobuchar and Jeff Flake, all advocates of normalizing diplomatic and economic relations with Cuba.

“Colonial Systems of The World”, one of that month’s features, summarized the colonial policies of Great Britain and questioned how the U.S. could best open its domestic markets to its new territories-Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Hawaii.

The official said that is due to space constraints rather than political pressures from the Cuban government. Since then, the U.S. has taken Cuba off of the official “state sponsors of terror” list, relaxed travel restrictions to the island (to an extent), and reopened an embassy in Cuba for the first time since 1961.

He (Obama) is responsible for what happens, the Cuban government is emboldened by negotiations with Washington, said Angel Moya, the husband of the leader of the Ladies in White, to activists in the square outside the church, a few minutes before being arrested.

Asked about the report today at the State Department briefing, press secretary John Kirby said the U.S.is “deeply concerned by them, by this roundup of peaceful activists by Cuban authorities this past Sunday”.

The dissidents won’t visit the embassy but will meet Kerry after a lower-key, afternoon flag-raising at the ambassador’s residence. “That they are forgotten, they are disregarded, so much so that even 100 were arrested and nobody bats and eyelash”, said Ros-Lehtinen.

But, she added, U.S. engagement with Cuba offers more opportunities than dead ends when it comes to human rights. Some U.S. lawmakers, including several prominent Republican presidential candidates, have vowed not to repeal the embargo and have pledged to roll back President Barack Obama’s moves on Cuba.

Raising the flag also sends a message about how far the relationship between the two countries has progressed from a decade ago. It’s what they’ve done repeatedly since this whole thing started, and I don’t think they’re genuinely interested in pressing that point. Members of the Cuban-American congressional delegation also oppose additional funding to run an embassy.

For more than fifty years relations between the United States and Cuba were anything but agreeable, something that residents of this area know all too well. “Those are all going to remain important challenges that we’re going to continue to talk with the Cuban government about”.

General view of the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba, 12 August 2015.