Fidel Castro celebrates 89th birthday with leftist allies

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry will preside over the ceremony Friday to officially reopen the US embassy in Havana, with the hoisting of the flag of the bars and stars at the building located opposite the emblematic Malecón seawall. The two countries formally restored relations on July 20.

Protester Angel Moya – Soler’s husband – slammed Obama, and said the December announcement to normalize relations between the former Cold war foes had bolstered Havana’s crackdown on dissidents.

“In my opinion, another era of prosperity is likely to begin which, managed through acquired maturity, can successfully tackle the complexities of a new political relationship with the United States, and insert itself into the ins and outs of the global economy”, he said.

In response to a question on whether the Obama administration will reduce U.S. funds to promote civil society in Cuba, including financial help to dissident groups there, and divert that money to help entrepreneurs and small businesses on the island, Kerry said he is not aware of any such plan.

Many believe that Cuban officials would boycott the American ceremony if Kerry invited any of the government’s critics.

Although the Cuban government has demonized the U.S. for years in its propaganda to its people, today many young Cubans are consuming American culture via smart phones and even sporting American patriotic clothes.

The U.S. delegation to Cuba includes Kerry and other executive branch officials, as well as Democratic Sens.

The rapprochement after 54 years of formal diplomatic estrangement was engineered by Fidel’s brother Raul, who took over Cuba’s presidency after the elder Castro suffered a health crisis in 2006. The Cuban government labels its domestic opponents as traitorous U.S. mercenaries.

In fact, the Cuban government threw an estimated 90 protesters – many clad in black-and-white Barack Obama masks – into jail for marching against the government.

“I can’t speak to what we may have, or may not have, shared with, or discussed with the Cuban government”, he said.

The United States severed diplomatic ties with Cuba in 1961 and imposed an economic embargo on the communist-ruled country.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will oversee the event, which follows a similar flag-raising ceremony outside the Cuban Embassy in Washington, D.C., last month. Resolving outstanding claims on both sides will be a complex, and critical, part of the thawing of relations between the US and Cuba.