Cuba opens Washington embassy, urges end to embargo

Countries respective interests were upgraded to embassies.

Zimbabwe and the USA have had frosty relations over the past decade with America alleging President Robert Mugabe’s government was rigging elections and failing to respect people’s rights. Around 4 a.m. ET and with little fanfare, maintenance workers placed the Cuban flag in the lobby of the State Department alongside those of other nations with which the US has diplomatic ties.

The historic shift from Cold War era relations was memorialized on Monday when Cuban officials inaugurated their embassy in Washington.

But the counterpoint to restoration of ties is a long list of lingering disputes, as well as Havana’s desire to keep a tight rein on Cuba’s society and its state-run economy.

As the flag went up outside the Cuban embassy in Washington Monday, the flights out of the Communist island into kept rolling into Miami worldwide Airport. He also said that he wants the US base at Guantanamo Bay returned to Cuba, and for Obama to bring an end to the embargo.

“This milestone does not signify an end to the many differences that still separate our governments”, said US Secretary of State John Kerry, who announced he will visit Havana on August 14.

The US Embassy in Havana was also officially reopened for business.

Differences include the U.S. economic embargo, Cuba’s human rights record, outstanding legal claims against each country, American fugitives still sheltered in Cuba and Washington’s retention of its naval base at Guantanamo Bay.

The White House welcomed the “historic opening” of the US Embassy in Havana and the the Cuban Embassy in Washington, DC.

Kerry said the process of fully normalizing relations will continue, though it may be long and complex and requiring patience.

He said the Cuban flag that hung outside the Washington embassy when it closed in 1961 will now be displayed inside.

The next high-level step in the détente happened in an April, when Obama met with current Cuban President Raúl Castro, Fidel’s brother, at the Summit of the Americas, held in Panama.

Indeed it doesn’t. The landmark flag-raising celebrating the re-establishment of full diplomatic ties represents an effort by the United States to try something new after a half-century of estrangement that saw freedom inside the island slowly erased and finally eliminated altogether. Another tough issue is compensation for American property seized after the 1959 Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro.

Deputy Chief of Mission for the USA in Havana Conrad Tribble tweeted: “Just made first phone call to State Dept. Ops Center from United States Embassy Havana ever”. “Obama’s rush to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba is wrong”.

With regard to the economic embargo, Kerry recalled that only Congress may lift it and said he was confident that as the bilateral relationship develops “in these next weeks and months and years – and hopefully not too many years” – those who oppose lifting the embargo will cease to do so. “We wanted the secretary to be there to oversee these important events”, a State Department official said.