Kerry to Cubans: It’s time to end ‘mutual isolation’

Secretary Kerry addressing U.S. Marines Jim Tracy, F.W. “Mike” East, and Larry C. Morris who lowered the American flag outside U.S. Embassy Havana for the last time in 1961 moments before the raising of the U.S. flag today over the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba, August 14, 2015.

Kerry’s whirlwind day begins with a pre-dawn departure flight “from Andrews Air Force base and his first official meeting in Havana is with Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter to thank the Swiss government for watching over U.S. interests in Cuba for so many decades after the United States broke off diplomatic relations with Havana on January 3, 1961 as tensions intensified after the 1959 Cuban Revolution”.

The symbolic event took place eight months after Havana and Washington agreed to restore ties and almost four weeks after the United States and Cuba formally renewed diplomatic relations and upgraded their diplomatic missions to embassies.

“The message is, No. 1, that we believe our engaging in direct diplomatic relations with the Cuban government being there, being able to interact with the people of Cuba, will in fact, help the people of Cuba”, he said.

He said in a phone interview he hopes his new poem will spur Cubans to reunite emotionally after years of separation due to politics, travel restrictions and an economic embargo.

Mr. Castro said the U.S owed Cuba money because of the trade embargo America imposed on the communist-run island in 1960.

“Secretary Kerry’s visit is especially insulting for Cuba’s dissidents”, said Jeb Bush, a Republican candidate for next year’s U.S. presidential election.

U.S. diplomats in Havana on July 20 marked the occasion in private ceremonies exchanging American flags and hugs with each other and some of the embassy’s 300 Cuban employees.

While Cuba has increased its highly limited Internet access since December. 17 in a measure U.S. officials partially attribute to the warming with Washington, ordinary Cubans are growing increasingly impatient for concrete results from the new relationship.

“I expected the policy to change some day but I was still shocked when I received the email”, said Frank Muller-Karger, a professor at the USF College of Marine Science and a critic of the ban on academic travel to Cuba.

Kerry, who in interviews with Telemundo and Univision confirmed that dissent groups were not invited to the flag-raising ceremony, said that he will meet with them later.

In his speech, Kerry also acknowledged that the strong-arm policy that the U.S. has held toward Cuba in the past was misguided and needed to be changed.

But dissidents were not invited to the morning flag-raising in deference to the Cuban government, generating criticism from opponents of US President Barack Obama’s opening to Cuba.

The Stars and Stripes rose over the newly reopened U.S. Embassy after a half-century of often-hostile relations.

Klobuchar is leading the Freedom to Export to Cuba Act, which lifts the current embargo and allows more U.S. goods to be exported to Cuba.

Kerry’s visit was heavily criticized by those who say the Obama administration acquiesced to a regime that has no respect for human rights.