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Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Havana for fewer than 12 hours to officiate the reopening of the embassy that was closed in 1961 when the Eisenhower administration severed diplomatic ties with the government of then 34-year-old Fidel Castro. “It remains an...

The report notes, “Blanco is an award-winning poet who came to the U.S. with his Cuban exile parents from Spain when he was an infant”.

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

A jubilant flag-raising at the reopened U.S. Embassy in Havana is giving way to serious talk about the road ahead in improving relations between the United States and Cuba.

Secretary of State John Kerry called the ceremony a “truly historic moment”, while stressing to the leaders and citizens of the communist nation that the United States would “always be a champion of democratic principles”.

The Marines were interviewed earlier this week by The New York Times, and have recalled their experiences in the past. But dissidents were not invited to the flag-raising in deference to the Cuban government.

Cuban television has switched from cartoons to live coverage of the U.S. embassy flag-raising, broadcasting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s arrival at Havana’s Jose Marti airport followed by a detailed biography of Kerry’s career.

Secretary of State John Kerry called for a “genuine democracy” in Cuba on Friday as the American flag was raised here for the first time in more than half a century, formally reopening the U.S. Embassy.

But on Friday, the US hoisted the Stars and Stripes over its newly reopened American Embassy in Cuba, the culmination of a remarkable behind-the-scenes diplomatic manoeuvre designed to end more than half a century of hostility.

HAVANA-The three retired U.S. marines who lowered the flag at the American embassy here in 1961 helped raise the Stars and Stripes once again Friday at the seven-story building alongside Havana’s seaside Malecon boulevard.

Retired Marine Corporal Larry Morris, along with two fellow officers who dutifully lowered the flag 54 years ago, presented the Stars and Stripes on Friday to three Marines now part of the detachment in Havana.

Ex- Cuban president Fidel Castro released a congratulatory letter for Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to the media on Monday, in which he praised Greece for recently voting “no” on a referendum outlining the country’s bailout terms created by worldwide creditors.