US Embassy in Havana Reopens on Friday

They were right when they said our flag would fly again.

His Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodriguez, said he felt very comfortable with the Cuban democratic model, adding that there were things that could be improved upon, hence the on-going socio-economic reforms.

Not all the talk was as warm as the sunny summer day.

Speaking in Spanish, Kerry said the ceremony showed that the U.S. and Cuba “are no longer enemies, but neighbors”.

Two of the biggest threats to the U.S. women’s basketball’s team quest for a sixth straight gold medal have qualified for the Rio Olympics. Some Cuban emissaries proffered cigars and bottles of rum as goodwill gestures, but the law-abiding American officials couldn’t take these gifts home to the U.S., and had to leave them back in Ottawa. He spoke before an audience of Cuban and U.S. diplomats on the embassy grounds and hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of islanders watching and listening live. He says Cuba is not a place where people are subject to racial discrimination or police abuse, and says Cuba has no control of another country’s territory where people are tortured – a reference to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo in eastern Cuba. “We hope to build an exciting era for all of us”.

He said in the interim, a whole generation of Americans and Cubans had grown up and grown old.

The United States, which imposed the embargo on the north Caribbean island over 50 years ago after Fidel Castro-led revolutionary forces overthrew right wing dictator Fulgencio Batista as Prime Minister, reached out to Cuba last December through the efforts of President Barack Obama.

“There is no way Congress will lift the embargo if we are not making progress on issues of conscience”, he said.

Mr Kerry’s visit to Cuba drew criticism from several leading Republicans, including presidential candidate Jeb Bush who said it was “a birthday present for Fidel Castro – a symbol of the Obama administration’s acquiescence to his ruthless legacy”.

Cuba reopened its embassy in the United States last month.

The three men ceremoniously handed three Marines in dress uniforms a folded U.S. flag which they attached to the flagpole and raised as the national anthem was played by a Marine band.

During the historical event, Kerry made a statement calling for an end to “mutual isolation”, stating that the two countries have “stopped being prisoners of history”. “We really need to pass my bill”, she said. The U.S. embargo on Cuba, which began in 1960, remains in effect despite normalized diplomatic relations.

Just this month, the government detained about 90 dissidents who were staging a peaceful protest against the regime in Havana, Agence France-Presse reported. We’ve had to forge an awkward peace with Cuba given all our ideological differences.

It was a thorough effort by a 12-deep team that rolled through the 10-team tournament unbeaten, winning easily through the preliminary round and handling two quality opponents in Cuba and Brazil in the semifinals and gold-medal game.

Like other dissidents, he was not invited to the flag-raising ceremony but he did meet with Kerry at the US embassy residence. You can win an election and the Cuban-American community will not play a role in terms of votes. Kerry was to have a meeting with Cardinal Ortega following the ceremony.