zombola
08-14-2015, 01:08 PM
HAVANA | By Daniel Trotta and Lesley Wroughton
http://s3.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20150814&t=2&i=1071874539&w=&fh=&fw=&ll=644&pl=429&sq=&r=LYNXNPEB7D0MO
Workers clean the seal of the United States of America after placing it on the wall at the main entrance of the U.S. embassy in Havana, Cuba, August 14, 2015.
Reuters/Enrique De La Osa
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Cuba on Friday to raise the U.S. flag at the recently restored American Embassy in Havana, another symbolic step in improved relations between the two Cold War-era foes.
The ceremony, raising the flag over the building for the first time in 54 years, will come nearly four weeks after the United States and Cuba formally renewed diplomatic relations and upgraded their diplomatic missions to embassies.
While the Cubans celebrated with a flag-raising in Washington on July 20, the Americans waited until Kerry could travel to Havana.
Overnight, workers attached a sign reading "Embassy of the United States of America" above the entrance of the seaside building, accompanied by a U.S. seal.
Three classic American cars like those that still ply the streets of Havana were parked on the street behind the podium where Kerry will speak: a 1955 and a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air and a 1959 Chevrolet Impala, from the year of the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power.
Buildings surrounding the embassy were draped with large Cuban flags but the numerous flag poles in front of the embassy were bare but for one Cuban flag.
The restoration of diplomatic ties sets up the more complicated task of normalizing overall relations.
Cuba wants the United States to end its economic embargo of the island, return the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in eastern Cuba and halt radio and television signals beamed into Cuba.
The Americans will press Cuba on human rights, the return of fugitives granted asylum and the claims of Americans whose property was nationalized by Fidel Castro's government.
Kerry, the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Cuba in 70 years, will be accompanied by aides, members of Congress and three U.S. Marines who last lowered the flag there in January 1961. President Dwight Eisenhower severed diplomatic ties with Havana as relations soured soon after the 1959 Cuban Revolution.
The seven-story building in Havana and Cuba's mansion in Washington were closed from 1961 until 1977, when they reopened as interests sections.
Seeking to end the long hostilities, Cuban President Raul Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama announced last December they would restore diplomatic ties, reopen embassies and work to normalize relations.
Obama also has used executive power to relax some U.S. travel and trade restrictions but the Republican-controlled Congress has resisted his call to end America's wider economic embargo.
The Obama administration says Washington's long policy of trying to force change in Communist-governed Cuba through isolation did not work. Kerry told Univision television ahead of his trip he hoped to see a "transformation" begin to take place.
"More people will travel. There will be more exchange. More families will be reconnected. And hopefully, the government of Cuba will itself make decisions that will begin to change things."
Kerry will meet Cuban dissidents at the U.S. embassy residence in Havana on Friday afternoon. Dissidents were not invited to the morning flag-raising in deference to the Cuban government, which sees dissidents as U.S.-sponsored mercenaries
Restored diplomatic ties mean U.S. diplomats can travel more freely and increase staff. Cuba has also reduced the number of security guards who keep on eye on Cubans going in and out.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta and Lesley Wroughton; Additional reporting by Marc Frank;
http://s3.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20150814&t=2&i=1071872616&w=&fh=&fw=&ll=644&pl=429&sq=&r=LYNXNPEB7D0M7
http://s3.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20150814&t=2&i=1071874539&w=&fh=&fw=&ll=644&pl=429&sq=&r=LYNXNPEB7D0MO
Workers clean the seal of the United States of America after placing it on the wall at the main entrance of the U.S. embassy in Havana, Cuba, August 14, 2015.
Reuters/Enrique De La Osa
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Cuba on Friday to raise the U.S. flag at the recently restored American Embassy in Havana, another symbolic step in improved relations between the two Cold War-era foes.
The ceremony, raising the flag over the building for the first time in 54 years, will come nearly four weeks after the United States and Cuba formally renewed diplomatic relations and upgraded their diplomatic missions to embassies.
While the Cubans celebrated with a flag-raising in Washington on July 20, the Americans waited until Kerry could travel to Havana.
Overnight, workers attached a sign reading "Embassy of the United States of America" above the entrance of the seaside building, accompanied by a U.S. seal.
Three classic American cars like those that still ply the streets of Havana were parked on the street behind the podium where Kerry will speak: a 1955 and a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air and a 1959 Chevrolet Impala, from the year of the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power.
Buildings surrounding the embassy were draped with large Cuban flags but the numerous flag poles in front of the embassy were bare but for one Cuban flag.
The restoration of diplomatic ties sets up the more complicated task of normalizing overall relations.
Cuba wants the United States to end its economic embargo of the island, return the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in eastern Cuba and halt radio and television signals beamed into Cuba.
The Americans will press Cuba on human rights, the return of fugitives granted asylum and the claims of Americans whose property was nationalized by Fidel Castro's government.
Kerry, the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Cuba in 70 years, will be accompanied by aides, members of Congress and three U.S. Marines who last lowered the flag there in January 1961. President Dwight Eisenhower severed diplomatic ties with Havana as relations soured soon after the 1959 Cuban Revolution.
The seven-story building in Havana and Cuba's mansion in Washington were closed from 1961 until 1977, when they reopened as interests sections.
Seeking to end the long hostilities, Cuban President Raul Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama announced last December they would restore diplomatic ties, reopen embassies and work to normalize relations.
Obama also has used executive power to relax some U.S. travel and trade restrictions but the Republican-controlled Congress has resisted his call to end America's wider economic embargo.
The Obama administration says Washington's long policy of trying to force change in Communist-governed Cuba through isolation did not work. Kerry told Univision television ahead of his trip he hoped to see a "transformation" begin to take place.
"More people will travel. There will be more exchange. More families will be reconnected. And hopefully, the government of Cuba will itself make decisions that will begin to change things."
Kerry will meet Cuban dissidents at the U.S. embassy residence in Havana on Friday afternoon. Dissidents were not invited to the morning flag-raising in deference to the Cuban government, which sees dissidents as U.S.-sponsored mercenaries
Restored diplomatic ties mean U.S. diplomats can travel more freely and increase staff. Cuba has also reduced the number of security guards who keep on eye on Cubans going in and out.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta and Lesley Wroughton; Additional reporting by Marc Frank;
http://s3.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20150814&t=2&i=1071872616&w=&fh=&fw=&ll=644&pl=429&sq=&r=LYNXNPEB7D0M7