Kerry hails new dawn in US relations with Cuba
Secretary of State re-opens embassy in Havana and calls for old barriers to be pushed aside
THE American flag was raised over the Havana seafront yesterday, marking the official reopening of the US embassy after more than half a century.
John Kerry became the first secretary of state to visit Cuba since 1945 when he landed in the capital, for what he termed “a day for pushing aside old barriers and exploring new possibilities.”
Standing in front of the office block that now serves as the country’s embassy, Mr Kerry praised the presidents of both nations for seeking a rapprochement.
“President Obama and President Castro made a courageous decision to stop being the prisoners of history, and to focus on the opportunities of today and tomorrow,” he said, in a ceremony broadcast live on Cuban state television. Since Barack Obama and Raul Castro made the unexpected Dec 17 announcement of the restoration of diplomatic ties, progress had been made in telecommunications, business and travel – with a 35 per cent increase in Americans visiting Cuba this year, Mr Kerry said. The three marines who lowered the flag in 1961 had returned to help raise it again, to the strains of The
Star Spangled Banner, watched by crowds along the Malecon, Havana’s seafront boulevard.
But Mr Kerry emphasised that this did not mean America “should or will forget the past” – and told how he remembered vividly living through the Cuban Missile Crisis.
“I was a student then, and I can still remember the taut faces of our leaders, the grim map showing the movement of opposing ships, the approaching deadline, and that peculiar word, ‘quarantine,’” he said.
“We were unsettled and uncertain about the future, because we didn’t know when closing our eyes at night what we would find when we woke up.
“In that frozen environment, diplomatic ties between Washington and this capital city were strained, then stretched thin, then severed.”
In words likely to irk Mr Castro, he urged the Cuban government to move towards democracy and the creation of a free civil society.
Cuban dissidents were not invited to the ceremony – to the anger of Republican presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, who both criticised Mr Kerry for making too many concessions to Mr Castro.
Cuban human rights groups claim that the regime detained more people in the month of July than it did over the past year.
Cuba now wants America to end its economic embargo of the island, return the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay in eastern Cuba and halt radio and television signals beamed into Cuba. The Americans will in future discussions press Cuba on human rights, the return of fugitives granted asylum and the claims of Americans whose property was nationalised by Fidel Castro’s government. As if to emphasise that there were still significant differences between the Castros and Washington, Fidel Castro, who handed power to his brother Raul in 2006, used the occasion of his 89th birthday to issue a strongly worded criticism of America.
He celebrated his advancing years with two other Left-wing adversaries of the US: Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s president, and Evo Morales of Bolivia, and in a letter to the Cuban people called for America to pay damages as a result of the embargo.
“Cuba is owed compensation equivalent to damages, which have reached many millions of dollars, as our country has denounced throughout our interventions in the United Nations, with irrefutable arguments and facts,” he wrote.
He pointedly made no reference to the historic events taking place on the day his “reflection” was published.
But Mr Kerry was not perturbed by Mr Castro’s rhetoric. Instead, he spoke of a wish for good neighbourly cooperation, and reiterated Mr Obama’s desire to see the embargo lifted – something that would remove the restrictions preventing much business, and allow completely free movement of people and goods. Only Congress can lift the embargo.
“Decades of good intentions aside, the policies of the past have not led to a democratic transition in Cuba,” he said. “Clearly, the events of the past, the harsh words, the provocative and retaliatory actions, the human tragedies, all have been a source of deep division that has diminished our common humanity. There have been too many days of sacrifice and sorrow, too many decades of suspicion and fear.
“That is why I am heartened by the many on both sides of the straights, who … have endorsed this search for a better path.
“And we are certain that the time is now to reach out to one another as two people who are no longer enemies or rivals, but neighbours, time to unfurl our flags, raise them up, and let the world know that we wish each other well.”