US Flag To Re-Fly Over Cuba Embassy After 54 Years

For the first time in more than fifty years, an American flag is now flying outside the U.S. Embassy in Havana.

“We remain convinced the people of Cuba would be best served by a genuine democracy, where people are free to choose their leaders, express their ideas and practice their faith”, Kerry said.

Marking a milestone in the United States’ historic rapprochement with Cuba, Kerry gave the cue to hoist the Stars and Stripes over the glass-and-concrete building on the Havana waterfront. “In the United States, that means recognizing that U.S. policy is not the anvil on which Cuba’s future will be forged”. The US Army Brass Quintet will be performing it. Before the flag-raising ceremony it is reported poem will be recited by Richard Blanco, entitled “Matters of the Sea”.

When three Marines were called upon to lower the flag outside the American embassy in Havana 54 years ago, they did their duty.

“Larry, Mike and Jim had done their jobs, but they also made a bold promise – that one day they would return to Havana and raise the flag again”, Kerry said.

“We also have concerns about human rights in the US”, he said, adding that “Cuba isn’t a country with racial discrimination or police brutality, nor does it carry out torture in a territory under its jurisdiction”. Three Marines who took part in the flag-lowering in 1961 handed over the new flag to Marines who raised it on Friday.

Kerry was to meet with dissidents and representatives of Cuban civil society, who were not invited to the ceremony at the embassy.

“On the basis of mutual respect and equality, and on the precondition that Cuba’s independence and sovereign integrity will not be encroached upon and its internal affairs will not be interfered in, our government has the full will to normalize relations with the United States“. The United States top diplomat arrived in Havana at 9:00 a.m. on board a State Department plane.

“There’s a sense of an opening possibility only – and we’re exploring whether or not we can find a series of steps that we agree on”, Kerry said of worldwide conversations that include the Russians and Saudis alongside the U.S. “Clearly everybody is seized on this issue right now, because of the threat of ISIS, Dayesh, that is growing, and the disorder and catastrophe that Syria has become”.

Cuba reopened its embassy in the United States last month.

“There is no way Congress will lift the embargo if we are not making progress on issues of conscience”, he said.

The opening of the US embassy in Havanna is the latest development after the US and Cuba first announced the restoration of diplomatic ties last December.

“Their exclusion from this event has ensured it will be little more than a propaganda rally for the Castro regime”, said Marco Rubio, the Cuban-American senator running for the Republican presidential nomination. Although now formally embassies, the former interests sections in Washington and Havana still await the appointment of ambassadors.