Dissidents not invited to ceremonies as U.S. embassy reopens in Havana

washington» Cuban dissidents, so long the center of U.S. policy toward the island, won’t be invited to Secretary of State John Kerry’s historic flag-raising at the U.S. Embassy in Havana on Friday, vividly illustrating how U.S. policy is shifting focus to its single-party government.

Kerry intends to meet more quietly with prominent activists later in the day, officials said.

The Cuban government labels its domestic opponents as traitorous U.S. mercenaries. As the two countries have moved to restore relations, Cuba has almost entirely stopped meeting with American politicians who visit dissidents during trips to Havana.

That presented a quandary for U.S. officials organizing the ceremony on Friday to mark the reopening of the embassy on Havana’s historic waterfront.

Inviting dissidents would risk a boycott by Cuban officials, including those who negotiated with the U.S. after Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro declared detente Dec. 17.

On the other hand, excluding dissidents would certainly provoke fierce criticism from opponents of Obama’s new policy, including Cuban-American Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio.

Officials familiar with the plans for Kerry’s visit, the first by a sitting U.S. secretary of state to Cuba since World War II, told The Associated Press that a compromise was in the works.

The dissidents won’t be invited to the embassy event, but a small group will meet with Kerry at the U.S. chief of mission’s home in the afternoon, where a lower-key, flag-raising ceremony is scheduled.

“That is a government-to-government moment, with very limited space, by the way, which is why we’re having the reception later in the day at which we can have a cross-section of civil society including some dissidents,” Kerry told the Telemundo network Wednesday evening.