Havana Times
http://www.havanatimes.org
John Kerry Arrives in Havana to Re-Open US Embassy
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=113279
HAVANA TIMES — US Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Havana at nine in the morning and was welcomed at the Jose Marti airport by the vice-chief of protocol of Cuba’s foreign ministry, Lidia Margarita Gonzalez. Kerry will reopen the US embassy 54 years after Washington broke diplomatic, economic and commercial relations with the country, in addition to freezing Cuba’s funds at US banks and barring its citizens from traveling to the island.
The Secretary of State is accompanied by Roberta Jacobson, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and the chief negotiator in the bilateral rapprochement between the two countries, Bruce Andrews, Deputy Secretary of Commerce, Sarah Bloom Raskin, Deputy Secretary of the US Department of the Treasury, Mark Feierstein, Senior Director at the National Security Council, Jonathan Finer, Chief of Staff at the US Department of State, Tom Malinowski, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, David McKean, Director of Policy Planning, David Thorne, Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State and Kurt Tidd, Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
In addition to presiding over the official ceremony surrounding the reopening of the embassy, Kerry will meet with Didier Burkhalter, Foreign Minister of Switzerland, the country that represented US interests in Cuba for decades. He will also meet with his counterpart, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, and Cardinal Jaime Ortega, who has played an important role in negotiations, in representation of the Vatican.
Dissident groups appear to be the only ones who were not invited to the party on this historical occasion, but, as something of a consolation, Kerry plans on holding a private meeting with a small group of opposition members in the home of the US ambassador.
Some invitees to the meeting could well stand the Secretary of State up. The head of the Ladies in White has openly criticized him for yielding to Cuba’s pressures. “He hasn’t set down any conditions and we’re already seeing the results of this. No dissident has been invited to the inauguration of the embassy.”
The rapprochement with Cuba was set in motion by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, ironically the wife of the president that transformed the Cuban embargo into legislation. Cheryl Mills, chief of Clinton’s team, and the then Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Julissa Reynosso, met in secret with Cuban officials at Puerto Principe, Haiti, and in Santo Domingo, from 2010 to 2012. The report by the negotiations team suggested that Hillary Clinton should “continue negotiating with the Cubans on the release of Alan Gross but not allow his situation to block an advance of bilateral relations.The Cubans are not going to budge. We either deal with the Cuban Five or cordon those two issues off.”
In 2013, Ben Rhodes and Ricardo Zuñiga sat at the negotiations table on the United States’ side and diplomat Josefina Vidal represented Cuba. President Obama kept the meeting in the strictest secrecy – he didn’t even inform the Pentagon about it. Only Vice-President Joe Biden, Chief of White House Staff Denis McDonough and Susan Rice, National Security Advisor, were aware of the meeting. This way, Obama prevented negotiations from being boycotted from within his administration.
Sprucing up Havana for John Kerry
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=113264
The US Flag Flies Again in Cuba
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=113286
HAVANA TIMES — The US flag has finally been raised in front of the newly-opened embassy in Havana. The Cuban delegation was headed by Josefina Vidal, who was at the front of negotiations with the United States. John Kerry appeared later, wearing a blue suit and leaning on a cane, to sit down next to the Cuban diplomat.
In his speech, delivered in English and partially in Spanish, the Secretary of State insisted that Cuba has nothing to fear from his country. He made a vague mention of the benefits of “true” democracy, but acknowledged that the decision as to Cuba’s political system must be made exclusively by Cubans.
Several hundred people – Cubans and Americans – gathered at 7 in the morning at the Malecon ocean drive, some 50 meters away from the embassy, and witnessed the reopening ceremony. The public was not subjected to any special security measures, only a fence indicated the area they could not access. Hundreds of umbrellas and fans evidenced how hot the day was, even mid-morning. Even the US guests had to take off their jackets to cool off.
Some 400 journalists, half of whom have come to Cuba to cover the event exclusively, were there, including representatives from the world’s main television channels, from the United States to Japan.
The US flag was delivered by 3 retired marines, the same ones who lowered it 54 years ago, when Washington broke relations with Cuba. One of them, Jim Tracy, confessed: “I’m moved. I think the entire world is going to like what’s coming.” Another, Mike East, stated that re-establishing relations means a lot, as there are “a great number of people who have been affected, separated families and everything that’s happened.
A Historic flight as Kerry’s entourage heads to Cuba
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=113229
Fidel Castro’s Birthday Party in Pictures
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=113272
HAVANA TIMES — Fidel Castro celebrated his 89th birthday on Thursday with his guests that included presidents Evo Morales and Nicolas Maduro. The government’s Estudios Revolución was on hand to capture the gathering.
While the international press swarmed to Havana for the flag raising ceremony at the US embassy, scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on Friday, the main news item in the Cuban press is the good wishes to Fidel on his birthday.
Fidel Castro Writes to Cubans on His 89th Birthday
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=113239
HAVANA TIMES — Former Cuban President Fidel Castro, celebrating his 89th birthday on Thursday, is on the front page of the official Granma newspaper and heading all news programs to remind everyone of the damage caused Cuba by the United States and the “due compensation” the island deserves.
His message comes a day before the visit of US Secretary of State, John Kerry for the reopening of the US embassy in Havana.
Cuba is owed many millions of dollars in compensation, wrote Castro in reference to the island’s claims related to damages sustained from the half century US embargo on the island.
Under the historic rapprochement with the United States, Fidel’s brother and current president, Raul Castro, has previously demanded the payment of compensation as a condition for full normalization of bilateral relations. The US, on the other hand, wants Cuba to compensate US companies nationalized in the early years of the revolution.
In his new “reflection”, Fidel Castro also criticized the historical role of the US as a world power, recalling the dropping of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 70 years ago.
“The equal right of all citizens to health, education, work, food, security, culture, science, and wellbeing, that is, the same rights we proclaimed when we began our struggle, in addition to those which emerge from our dreams of justice and equality for all inhabitants of our world, is what I wish for all,” wrote the historic Cuban leader his text entitled “Reality and Dreams“.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry will preside over the ceremony Friday to officially reopen the US embassy in Havana, with the hoisting of the flag of the bars and stars at the building located opposite the emblematic Malecón seawall.
The US and Cuba resumed their diplomatic relations on July 20 after half a century of rupture and ideological confrontation. The Cuban embassy officially reopened its doors that day in Washington in a ceremony headed by Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.
The historic thaw between the two countries was announced unexpectedly on December 17, 2014 by Raul Castro and Barack Obama. Washington and Havana then negotiated for six months on the conditions to reopen their embassies closed in 1961.
Fidel Castro’s Birthday Draws Presidents Maduro and Morales to Havana
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=113260