“Of course we have our differences”, Rodriguez said in a joint press conference. It is something that two countries do together when the citizens of both will benefit. On Friday, both sides made clear the rapprochement would be slow and incremental, with less challenging issues being tackled first.
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.
“Currently Cuba allows U.S. products in agriculture and in humanitarian aid, so those opportunities now exist for local businesses but not anything beyond that”, said Stimpson.
It seemed that virtually all of Cuba was glued to a television or listening to a live radio broadcast on a cellphone.
Additionally, almost half of people in the five Latin American countries mentioned earlier, plus Peru, think Cuba will begin to embrace democracy over the coming years.
Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar said 50 years of the embargo have not secured U.S. interests in Cuba, but have disadvantaged American businesses by restricting commerce with a market of 11 million people just 144 kilometers from U.S. shores.
As a U.S. Army brass band played the American national anthem, the three elderly Marines who last lowered the flag here in January 1961 handed a new, folded banner to the young members of the new contingent of Marine guards, who raised it and saluted.
The senior official indicated that Cuban dissidents would not be part of the flag-raising ceremony at the U.S. Embassy.
Cubans as well as Cuban-Americans who came down to Havana for the historic event conceded the flag-raising ceremony is only the beginning of a long and uncertain process. Secretary of State Kerry met with dissidents at a separate reception later Friday. But dissidents were not invited to the flag-raising in deference to the Cuban government.
“There are people going to Havana for this event who have not been to Cuba before and that includes some Cuban-Americans, and that has to be incredibly emotional”, the official said during a briefing Wednesday.
Addressing reporters with Kerry after the ceremony, Rodriguez responded by indignantly opening his remarks with complaints of U.S. human rights transgressions – from police shootings of black men to mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. naval base that Cuba says must be returned. He is also a former governor of Florida, home to the biggest Cuban emigre population.
With ties now restored, there are plenty of hurdles along the way to normal relations between the two neighbors.
“We’re very outspoken, and we will remain very clear and outspoken on these issues“, Kerry said.
In Havana, Ric Herrero of the organization Cuba Now, which advocates for increased U.S. Cuba ties, said his organization would be working to foster a change of mind in Congress regarding the trade restriction.