Cuba flag raised at US state department as ties resume

Cuba flag raised at US state department as ties resume

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Cuba-flag-raised-at-US-state-department-as-ties-resume/articleshow/48147578.cms

WASHINGTON: The United States and Cuba formally resumed diplomatic relations on Monday, as the Cuban flag was raised at the US state department in a historic gesture toward ending decades of hostility between the Cold War foes.

The Cuban red, white and blue standard joined the flags of other US allies flying outside the building in the US capital at about 4am local time (0800 GMT), according to an AFP photographer.

The flag was also set to be raised at Havana's diplomatic mission in Washington — upgraded to an embassy as diplomatic ties formally resumed after the stroke of midnight — for the first time since 1961.

The US interests section in Havana was also upgraded to a full embassy, with a more formal ceremony set to take place when US secretary of state John Kerry visits in the coming weeks and officially hoists the banner.

Kerry will formally receive his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez for talks in Washington later Monday, and Rodriguez will preside over a ceremony at the Cuban embassy, a stone's throw from the White House.

The United States and Cuba announced on December 17 they would move toward normalizing relations after decades of enmity.

Several historic moments have taken place since then, including a meeting between US President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro in Paraguay in April — the first face-to-face talks between a US and Cuban president since the 1959 revolution.

In May, the United States removed Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, which was a key stumbling block.

US, Cuba restore full diplomatic ties after 5 decades

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/US-Cuba-restore-full-diplomatic-ties-after-5-decades/articleshow/48140180.cms

WASHINGTON: More than a half century of Cold War and lingering enmity came to an abrupt but quiet end on Monday as the United States and Cuba restored full diplomatic relations.

The new era began with little fanfare when an agreement between the two nations to resume normal ties on July 20 came into force just after midnight Sunday and the diplomatic missions of each country were upgraded from interests sections to embassies. When clocks struck 12:00 in Washington and Havana, they tolled a knell for policy approaches spawned and hardened over the five decades since President John F. Kennedy first tangled with youthful revolutionary Fidel Castro over Soviet expansion in the Americas.

Without ceremony in the pre-dawn hours, maintenance workers were to hang the Cuban flag in the lobby of the state department alongside those of other nations with which the U.S. has diplomatic relations. The historic shift will be publicly memorialized later Monday when Cuban officials formally inaugurate their embassy in Washington and Cuba's blue, red and white-starred flag will fly for the first time since the countries severed ties in 1961. Secretary of State John Kerry will then meet his Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodriguez, and address reporters at a joint news conference.

The US Interests Section in Havana plans to announce its upgrade to embassy status in a written statement on Monday, but the Stars and Stripes will not fly at the mission until Kerry visits in August for a ceremonial flag-raising.

And yet, though normalization has taken center stage in the US-Cuba relationship, there remains a deep ideological gulf between the nations and many issues still to resolve. Among them: thorny disputes such as over mutual claims for economic reparations, Havana's insistence on the end of the 53-year-old trade embargo and US calls for Cuba to improve on human rights and democracy. Some U.S. lawmakers, including several prominent Republican presidential candidates, have vowed not to repeal the embargo and pledged to roll back Obama's moves on Cuba.

Still, Monday's events cap a remarkable change of course in US policy toward the communist island under President Barack Obama, who had sought rapprochement with Cuba since he first took office and has progressively loosened restrictions on travel and remittances to the island.

Obama's efforts at engagement were frustrated for years by Cuba's imprisonment of US Agency for International Development contractor Alan Gross on espionage charges. But months of secret negotiations led in December to Gross's release, along with a number of political prisoners in Cuba and the remaining members of a Cuban spy ring jailed in the United States. On Dec. 17, Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced they would resume full diplomatic relations.

Declaring the long-standing policy a failure that had not achieved any of its intended results, Obama declared that the U.S. could not keep doing the same thing and expect a change. Thus, he said work would begin apace on normalization.

That process dragged on until the US removed Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in late May and then bogged down over issues of U.S. diplomats' access to ordinary Cubans.

On July 1, however, the issues were resolved and the US and Cuba exchanged diplomatic notes agreeing that the date for the restoration of full relations would be July 20.

"It's a historic moment," said longtime Cuban diplomat and analyst Carlos Alzugaray.

"The significance of opening the embassies is that trust and respect that you can see, both sides treating the other with trust and respect," he said. "That doesn't mean there aren't going to be conflicts _ there are bound to be conflicts — but the way that you treat the conflict has completely changed."

Cuba's ceremony at the stately 16th Street mansion in Washington that has been operating as an interests section under the auspices of the Swiss embassy will be attended by some 500 guests, including a 30-member delegation of diplomatic, cultural and other leaders from the Caribbean nation, headed by Foreign Minister Rodriguez.

The U.S. will be represented at the event by Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson, who led U.S. negotiators in six months of talks leading to the July 1 announcement, and Jeffrey DeLaurentis, the chief of the US Interests Section in Havana who will now become charge d'affaires.

Although the Interests Section in Havana won't see the pomp and circumstance of a flag-raising on Monday, workers there have already drilled holes on the exterior to hang signage flown in from the U.S., and arranged to print new business cards and letterhead that say "Embassy" instead of "Interests Section." What for years was a lonely flagpole outside the glassy six-story edifice on Havana's seafront Malecon boulevard recently got a rehab, complete with a paved walkway.

Every day for the last week, employees have been hanging hand-lettered signs on the fence counting down, in Spanish, to Monday: "In 6 days we will become an embassy!" and so on.

Both interests sections have technically operated as part of Switzerland's embassies in Washington and Havana. The Swiss also were caretakers for the former American Embassy and ambassador's residence from 1961 to 1977, when the US had no diplomatic presence in the country at all.

No change for now in Cuba migration policy: US

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/No-change-for-now-in-Cuba-migration-policy-US/articleshow/47966457.cms

WASHINGTON: Washington has no current plans to modify its Cuban migration rules after the Cold War foes announced the re-establishment of diplomatic ties from July 20, officials said on Monday.

A 1966 law gives the US attorney general the discretion to offer any citizen of Cuba admission and permanent residence in the US after spending one year in the country, with no yearly quota on immigrants.

"The administration has no plans to alter current migration policy, including the Cuban Adjustment Act," the State Department said in a statement.

According to a fact sheet, the United States "continues to support safe, legal and orderly migration from Cuba," as well as "the full implementation of the existing migration accords" with the Communist-ruled island nation.

Cuban migration to US shores has surged since the historic bilateral thaw announced in mid-December, amid uncertainty over the future of the migration policy.

US figures show the number of Cuban migrants doubled in the first three months of 2015 compared to the same period last year.

As for the economic restrictions, the 1962 "embargo on Cuba is still in place and legislative action is required to lift it," the State Department noted.

The current rules on travel to Cuba by US citizens also remain in effect, it said, noting the US Treasury Department still licenses 12 categories of authorized travel to Cuba.

Washington and Havana last week announced their decision to restore diplomatic ties that had been frozen for more than half a century.

Their respective embassies are due to open on July 20.

"Normalizing relations is a long, complex process that will require continued interaction and dialogue between our two governments," the State Department said.

"We will have areas of cooperation with the Cubans, and we will continue to have differences."

Obama, Raul Castro shake hands as US, Cuba seek better ties

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Obama-Raul-Castro-shake-hands-as-US-Cuba-seek-better-ties/articleshow/46885136.cms

PANAMA CITY: President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro shook hands on Friday at a summit in Panama, a symbolically charged gesture as the pair seek to restore ties between the Cold War foes.

A photograph showed Obama and Castro, both wearing dark suits, chatting in a small group of leaders at the summit's opening ceremony. A White House official confirmed the two men shook hands and spoke briefly.

"This was an informal interaction and there was not a substantive conversation between the two leaders," the official said.

Obama and Castro are expected to meet again on Saturday and talk about their efforts to restore full diplomatic relations and boost trade and travel between the two countries.

Their rapprochement, first unveiled in a historic policy shift in December, is the central issue at the Summit of the Americas meeting in Panama.

"As we move towards the process of normalization, we'll have our differences government to government with Cuba on many issues. Just as we differ at times with other nations within the Americas, just as we differ with our closest allies," Obama said earlier on Friday.

But the 53-year-old Obama, who was not even born when Fidel and Raul Castro swept to power in Cuba's 1959 revolution, also said the United States is no longer interested in trying to impose its will on Latin America.

"The days in which our agenda in this hemisphere so often presumed that the United States could meddle with impunity, those days are past," he said.

Days of US meddling in Latin America long gone: Obama

Apart from a couple of brief, informal encounters, the leaders of the United States and Cuba have not had any significant meetings since the Castro brothers toppled U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista and then steered their Caribbean country into a close alliance with the Soviet Union.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos hailed Obama's push to improve relations with Cuba, saying it was helping to heal a "blister" that was hurting the region.

However, Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas said civic groups in Cuba have been sidelined from talks and appealed to Obama to support their push for more democracy.

"The Cuban government is showing no goodwill ... They don't want to make any kind of concessions," he told Reuters.

Obama, who met with activists from across Latin America, including two Cuban dissidents, appears to be close to removing communist-run Cuba from a U.S. list of countries that it says sponsor terrorism.

Its inclusion on the list brings a series of automatic U.S. sanctions and Cuba is insisting it be taken off as a condition of restoring diplomatic ties.

Washington imposed trade sanctions on Cuba from 1960 and broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961, but the ensuing freeze did it no favors, said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser.

"Our Cuba policy, instead of isolating Cuba, was isolating the United States in our own backyard," he noted.

Cooperation

The two countries have maintained contact through interests sections in Havana and Washington since 1977, and in recent years they have increasingly cooperated on issues such as migration and drug trafficking.

The State Department has now recommended that Cuba be taken off the terrorism list, a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee aide said. Obama is expected to agree, although it is not clear whether he will announce it during the summit.

Obama has already used his executive authority to ease some trade and travel restrictions, and is seeking to encourage nascent small businesses in Cuba by allowing more exports there.

But only Congress, controlled by Republicans, can remove the overall U.S. economic embargo on the island. The rapprochement by Obama, a Democrat, has met some resistance in Washington and among some influential Cuban-Americans.

Critics say Cuba should not be rewarded unless it changes its one-party political system.

While Obama's policy has been widely praised around Latin America, this was tempered last month when his administration imposed sanctions on Venezuela, Cuba's closest ally and main benefactor.

That controversy now hangs over the summit this weekend.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro plans to present Obama with a petition signed by millions of people demanding that the sanctions be reversed. He is certain to receive support from Castro and other left-wing leaders in Latin America.

Historic day as Cuban flag flies in Washington

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/cuba/

http://news.yahoo.com/us-cuba-sweeping-aside-cold-war-enmity-restore-094057398.html

The Cuban banner also took its place in the columned marble entrance hall to the State Department, hoisted before dawn between the flags of Croatia and Cyprus.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/historic-handshake-between-kerry-cubas-173848285.html

http://news.yahoo.com/u-cuba-quietly-open-historic-chapter-post-cold-041510710.html

Cuba opens Washington embassy, urges end to embargo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Cuban flag was raised over Havana’s embassy in Washington on Monday for the first time in 54 years as the United States and Cuba formally restored relations, opening a new chapter of engagement between the former Cold War foes.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez presided over the reinauguration of the embassy, a milestone in the diplomatic thaw that began with an announcement by U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro on Dec. 17.

Underscoring differences that remain between the United States and Communist-ruled Cuba, Rodriguez seized the opportunity to urge Obama to use executive powers to do more to dismantle the economic embargo, the main stumbling block to full normalization of ties. For its part, the Obama administration pressed Havana for improvement on human rights.

But even with continuing friction, the reopening of embassies in each other's capitals provided the most concrete symbols yet of what has been achieved after more than two years of negotiations between governments that had long shunned each other.

In a further sign of a desire to move past a half-century of enmity, Secretary of State John Kerry later hosted Rodriguez, the first Cuban foreign minister to visit Washington since the Cuban Revolution, for talks at the State Department.

While both men stressed the momentous occasion, they also sought to temper optimism fueled by the day's festivities.

"The historic events we are living today will only make sense with the removal of the economic, commercial and financial blockade, which causes so much deprivation and damage to our people, the return of occupied territory in Guantanamo, and respect for the sovereignty of Cuba," Rodriguez said at the reopening ceremony.

Obama has modestly eased some business and travel restrictions but the broader 53-year-old embargo remains in place. Only Congress can lift it, something majority Republicans are unlikely to do anytime soon despite the Democratic president's appeal for it to be rescinded.

With Rodriguez at his side later on Monday, Kerry hailed a "new beginning" in relations but said there was still much that divided the two governments and that the path to complete normalization may be "long and complex."

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters the administration was "hopeful" that Cuba in coming years would start to show respect for basic human rights.

POMP IN WASHINGTON, LESS FANFARE IN HAVANA

Earlier, a three-man military honor guard marched onto the front lawn of the newly restored embassy in Washington where the Cuban flag was hoisted while the Cuban national anthem played.

There were competing chants from the crowd outside the gates. "Cuba si, embargo no!" shouted one group. "Cuba si, Fidel no," yelled a much smaller contingent of counter-demonstrators.

Rodriguez then spoke inside the stately building, which was visited by revolutionary leader Fidel Castro just months after he seized power in Cuba in 1959.

In Havana, the U.S. Embassy was also reopened for business but with much less fanfare. The Stars and Stripes will not be hoisted there until a visit by Kerry on Aug. 14.

A crowd of about 100 Cubans, tourists and Cuban-Americans gathered in front, many clutching small U.S. flags. One Cuban held a banner that read, "Welcome USA."

In Washington, more than 500 people attended the ceremony at the nearly century-old mansion. The U.S. delegation was headed by Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson.

Before dawn on Monday, workers hung the Cuban flag in the lobby of the State Department alongside the banners of other countries with which the United States has diplomatic relations.

"We've waited a long time for this day," Senator Patrick Leahy, a staunch supporter of rapprochement, said as he entered the grounds of the Cuban Embassy.

Hard-line anti-Castro lawmakers, such as Senators Marco Rubio and Bob Menendez, who oppose Obama's outreach to Cuba, were not invited.

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush underscored his opposition on Twitter: "Obama's rush to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba is wrong. This embassy will only serve to further legitimize repressive regime."

The opening to Cuba reflects Obama's presidential doctrine of negotiating with enemies, a concept that faces an even tougher test with a nuclear deal reached with Iran last week.

But the counterpoint to restoration of ties is a long list of lingering disputes, as well as Havana's desire to keep a tight rein on Cuba's society and its state-run economy.

In addition to lifting the embargo, Havana demands the return of the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay - an issue that Kerry said Cuba had "strong feelings about" but which is not currently under discussion. Other problems include the countries' outstanding legal claims against each other and Cuba's sheltering of American fugitives.

(Additional reporting by Dan Trotta and Jiame Hamre in Havana, Idrees Ali, Susan Heavey and David Brunnstrom in Washington, David Adams in Miami; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Dan Grebler)