Cuban Dissidents Not Invited to US Embassy Opening in Havana

Along with three marines, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will be on hand during the ceremony, which marks the highest ranking American government official to visit the island since relations between Washington and Havana soured back in the early 1960s and the first by a secretary of state since 1945.

Officials have not said whether Kerry will meet with any dissidents on his trip.

However, the senior State Department official said the move to re-establish relations would allow the U.S.to continue and “hopefully accelerate” its engagement with Cuba on issues such as human rights and law enforcement.

Sen. Marco Rubio on Wednesday ripped the Obama Administration’s opening of an embassy in Cuba saying that he would shut it down if elected president.

We’ve seen months of historic U.S.-Cuba moments, from the symbolic handshake between President Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro to the announcement of restored ties.

Kerry will preside over two flag-raising events, the first at the embassy in the morning, then a second just before a late-afternoon reception at the home of the U.S. chief of mission in Havana’s Cubanacan neighborhood.

Cuban dissidents won’t be invited to the flag raising, and Kerry plans to meet with them later.

“They, among many others, and not the Castro family, are the legitimate representatives of the Cuban people”, Rubio said.

On Venezuela, Kerry confirmed that the U.S.-Cuba normalization talks have also included discussions on Venezuela and about the U.S. demand that the December 6 legislative elections in the South American country be clean and monitored by credible global observers. And some American companies and individuals are eager to settle claims on American-owned land and businesses that were confiscated by Cuba during the revolution.

Dissident Yoani Sanchez’s online newspaper 14ymedio has received no credential for the U.S. embassy event, said editor Reinaldo Escobar, who is married to Sanchez. “If we show up, they leave”.

The two countries have reopened embassies in their respective capitals after more than 50-year break in relations.

The Cuban Government had arrested some dissidents at the weekend.

The Worcester Democrat has long supported lifting the United States’ trade embargo, as well as travel restrictions, on Cuba.

“We will always stand with peaceful political activists who are looking for opening and space and human rights in Cuba”, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Cuban government has given no indication it is willing to provide compensation, though President Raúl Castro said in April during the Summit of the Americas in Panama that he is willing to discuss “everything”.