Boehner: Opening US Embassy won’t bring democracy to Cuba

Most Americans, especially Democrats, approve of the U.S.’ restored relations with Cuba – a process further solidified Friday when Secretary of State John Kerry presided over the raising of the American flag at the newly reopened U.S. Embassy in Havana.

The US embassy in Cuba will hold a ceremony on Friday, August 14, to raise the U.S. flag, to mark its reopening on H…

His comments drew a firm riposte from Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, who defended his Communist government at a joint news conference and criticised the United States’ own record on rights, referring to racial strife and police brutality in America.

“The United States has had 10 new presidents, and in a united Germany the Berlin Wall is a fading memory, freed from Soviet shackles”, he said.

Rich Negrin, Philadelphia’s Managing Director, says, “I think it’s the beginning of not just normalizing relations and opening an embassy but hopefully dialogue that will continue to show reforms around democracy”.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., a longtime critic of the Cuban government, said Thursday that Kerry’s visit was part of his “capitulation tour” of the world.

Cuba wants the United States to end its economic embargo of the island, return the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in eastern Cuba and halt radio and television signals beamed into Cuba.

On Friday, Secretary of State John F. Kerry traveled to Cuba to oversee the reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Havana. “In some ways all of my body of work has circled around this idea of cultural identity and negotiation of this sense of home”, said Blanco, the son of Cuban exiles who came to the U.S.in 1968 from Spain.

Julio Alvarez, head of the custom cab company that operates them, said the state department had invited him to send them without saying why, but he hoped that Mr Kerry would go for a drive in one.

“Opening the door to an embassy in Cuba will not open the door to democracy for the Cuban people”.

“There will be hiccups along the way but it’s a start”, Kerry told reporters traveling with him.

But despite the human rights concerns of some lawmakers who see a normalization of ties as a reward for the Castro government, the focus of U.S.-Cuba relations is now likely to shift away from the executive branch to Congress.

After counting Washington as their top ally for decades, opponents of the Castro regime are nervous the US-Cuban thaw will leave them out in the cold. The event also was attended by dissidents including Jose Daniel Ferrer, Miriam Leiva and Yoani Sanchez, who tweeted a selfie of with Kerry and a photo of the secretary of state meeting privately with a group of dissidents.

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.