Cuba, U. S. take a giant step
A tourist takes a selfie while holding an American flag in front of the U. S. Embassy in Havana on Monday. The U. S. and Cuba have officially resumed diplomatic relations after decades of antagonism.
Cuba’s blue, red and white- starred flag was hoisted Monday at the country’s embassy in Washington in a symbolic start of a new post- Cold War era in U. S.-Cuba relations.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez presided over the flagraising ceremony hours after full diplomatic relations with the United States were restored when an agreement to resume normal ties on July 20 took effect.
Earlier the Cuban flag was hung in the lobby of the State Department alongside those of other countries with which the U. S. has diplomatic ties.
But there were also signs of the sore points that continue in the relationship. In remarks inside the embassy Rodriguez slammed the U. S. for continuing to hold on to Guantanamo Bay, the U. S. naval base in Cuba, where a military prison has continued to hold terror suspects. Rodriguez said Guantanamo was a “nefarious consequence” of U. S. attempts to dominate the hemisphere.
The United States and Cuba severed diplomatic relations in 1961 and since the 1970s had been represented in each other’s capitals by limited service interests sections.
U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Havana Aug. 14 to preside over a flag- raising ceremony there.
Shortly after midnight, the Cuban Interests Section in Washington switched its Twitter account to say “embassy.”
Monday’s events cap a remarkable change of course in American policy toward the communist island under U. S. President Barack Obama, who had sought rapprochement with Cuba since he took office and has progressively loosened restrictions on travel and remittances to the island.