US Embassy Reopens in Cuba after 54 Years

Shelton, an Alexandria businessman, was at the newly reopened United States Embassy in Havana Friday as the American flag was raised in a ceremony celebrating renewed relations between the countries.

“The leaders in Havana – and the Cuban people – should also know that the United States will remain a champion of democratic principles and reforms”, Kerry said.

“My friends, it doesn’t take a Global Positioning System to realize that the road of mutual isolation and estrangement that the United States and Cuba were traveling is not the right one and that the time has come for us to move in a more promising direction”, he added.

In addition to an official U.S. delegation, Kerry brought a plane full of Cuban-Americans and several pro-normalization lawmakers, including Sen.

A mere 90 miles to the north, in Florida, critics of President Barack Obama’s policy regarding Cuba are sounding off.

However, Josefina Vidal, Cuba’s Lead Negotiator with the US, says the lift of the embargo, if and when it happens, will only be the first step of the long process of restoring economic relations.

“I smell the food and I see the dishes and the names on the menu, the dishes of my country“, said Roque. It has not responded to Obama’s actions with measures that would allow ordinary Cubans to benefit from them, such as allowing low-cost imports and exports by Cuban entrepreneurs looking to do business with the U.S. “Many times, we haven’t been able to get to church”, Soler told the National Review at this year’s Oslo Freedom Forum.

Two of the Cold War-era enemies have improved ties and after 54 long years the Stars and Strips flag will be seen flying over US Embassy in Havana, Cuba. A median of 77 percent of people in five Latin American countries – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela – support the revived relationship, Pew said in another study.

In December, President Obama announced that the “U.S. was ending an “outdated approach” of isolating Cuba”.

In an open letter yesterday, Castro said the United States owed Cuba millions of dollars because of its 53-year-long embargo.

Kerry was also due to take a stroll through Old Havana and meet ordinary Cubans in the historic colonial district.

The opening ceremony has been criticised by Republican presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio.

Although now formally embassies, the former interests sections in Washington and Havana still await the appointment of ambassadors.

The state department said it had limited space at what it called a government-to-government event, and invited dissidents to a separate afternoon flag-raising at the home of the embassy’s chief of mission.

“It is shameful that on the grounds of our embassy in Havana, the Cuban regime can dictate to the US government who may or may not attend this ceremony”, Bob Menendez, a Cuban-American senator from New Jersey, said in a statement.