US Marines hoisted the American flag at the US Embassy in Cuba for the first time in 54 years at a ceremony led by Secretary of State John Kerry marking the restoration of diplomatic relations between Washington and Havana.
Three retired Marines who last lowered the flag in 1961 participated in the ceremony, handing a new flag to the Marine Color Guard, which raised the flag on the grounds outside the embassy building on the Havana seafront.
The ceremony, raising the flag over the building for the first time in 54 years, came 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 travelled to Havana.
Kerry, the first US secretary of state to visit Cuba in 70 years, was accompanied by aides, members of Congress and the US Marines. Washington severed diplomatic ties with Havana as relations soured soon after the 1959 Cuban Revolution.
The seven-story seafront 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 US President Barack Obama announced last December they would restore diplomatic ties, reopen embassies and work to normalize relations.
Obama has also used executive power to relax some US 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 US 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 US-sponsored mercenaries.
Restored diplomatic ties mean US diplomats can travel more freely and increase staff. Cuba has also reduced the number of security guards who keep an eye on Cubans going in and out.
