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John Kerry arrives in Cuba for US embassy reopening – live John Kerry arrives in Cuba for US embassy reopening – live
(35 minutes later)
10.14am ET15:14
De Laurentis says he began his own foreign service career in this same building in 1991.
“I never imagined I would see our flag here,” he says.
De Laurentis introduces Richard Blanco, a Maine poet who read at president Obama’s second inauguration in 2014. Blanco was born to a Cuban exile family and was raised in Miami.
Blanco reads a poem he wrote for the occasion: Matters Of The Sea, or Cosas Del Mar.
10.10am ET15:10
US Ambassador to Cuba Jeffrey De Laurentis is now speaking.
He starts by thanking the 1961 marines who took down the flag, who receive a standing ovation from the gathered crowd.
10.09am ET15:09
The flag-raising ceremony has begun. John Kerry is meeting with the three US marines who took down the US flag in January 1961: Larry Morris, Francis East, Jim Tracy.
They are presiding over Friday’s ceremony.
Updated at 10.10am ET
10.07am ET15:07
Fidel Castro turned 89 on Thursday, and celebrated his birthday by calling on the US to pay embargo damages to his country:
Related: Fidel Castro celebrates 89th birthday by calling on US to pay embargo damages
The measure ordered by Nixon violated the commitments made by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. According to a large number of experts on the subject, the foundation of a crisis was created, which among other disasters threatens to powerfully batter the economy of this model of a country. Meanwhile, Cuba is owed compensation equivalent to damages, which have reached many millions of dollars, as our country has denounced throughout our interventions in the United Nations, with irrefutable arguments and facts.
10.00am ET15:00
9.50am ET14:50
Meanwhile, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, both leading Republican candidates for president, published statements Friday morning criticizing the Obama administration for the thaw in US-Cuba relations, timed to Kerry’s visit to the island.
Writing on his website, Bush called Cuba, an “an unyielding dictatorship, a tragic example of the folly of communism, and an affront to the conscience of the free nations of the Western Hemisphere.”
The accommodation of the Castro regime comes at the expense of the freedom and democracy that all Cubans deserve. http://t.co/Y0mR0OO0OV
Meanwhile, in a post on Medium, Marco Rubio has said:
The world has missed having an American President who speaks honestly about the world in which we live. In the eyes of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the Cuban people are suffering because not enough American tourists visit the country, when the truth is the Cuban people are suffering because they live in a tyrannical dictatorship.
I will do everything in my power to provide support to Cuba’s pro-democracy movement https://t.co/l5g7IqGn8c #RubioDoctrine
Rubio’s post comes on the heels of a speech he made this morning on foreign policy in New York, where he told those gathered that as president, he would “roll back President Obama’s concessions to the Castro regime”.
9.41am ET14:41
Political dissidents in Cuba not permitted to attend
Paul Lewis
Political dissidents in Cuba will not be permitted to attend the ceremonial opening of the US embassy in Havana on Friday, a move that signals the lengths Washington is prepared to go to nurture its emerging rapprochement with the communist state.
... Under pressure to show how the diplomatic thaw will lead to improvements in human rights standards in Cuba, Kerry said he would still meet dissidents at a gathering later in the day at the chief of mission’s residence. He also said he would have an “open, free walk” in Old Havana. “I look forward to meeting whoever I meet and listening to them and having, you know, whatever views come at me,” he said.
Kerry insisted that Cubans should be reassured that a return to diplomatic relations with Washington would result in the country’s leaders being held to account over their human rights record. “The message is … that we believe our engaging in direct diplomatic relations with the Cuban government, being there, being able to interact with the people of Cuba, will in fact, help the people of Cuba,” he said. “It will shed light on what is happening.”
However, the state department, which is refusing to release a complete list of invitees, later acknowledged that the event would not be exclusively composed of government dignitaries, as other private Cuban citizens – who are presumably supportive of the Castro government – will be in attendance.
Cuban government officials are understood to have signalled they would not attend the ceremony if vocal critics of the government were in attendance. “The right thing to do would be to invite us and hear us out despite the fact that we don’t agree with the new US policy,” Antonio Rodiles, head of the dissident group Estado de SATS, told the Associated Press.
Read his piece in full here.
9.38am ET14:389.38am ET14:38
The US embassy in Cuba has tweeted a photo of the six marines who will raise the US flag in the historic ceremony.The US embassy in Cuba has tweeted a photo of the six marines who will raise the US flag in the historic ceremony.
Ellos son los Marines que izarán la bandera en esta ceremonia histórica #KerryEnCuba pic.twitter.com/ywghjXc1ixEllos son los Marines que izarán la bandera en esta ceremonia histórica #KerryEnCuba pic.twitter.com/ywghjXc1ix
Here is a photo of three of them practicing earlier today:Here is a photo of three of them practicing earlier today:
9.35am ET14:359.35am ET14:35
Friday’s visit is not Kerry’s first to Cuba. He went there in 2000, while he was serving as a US senator for Massachusetts.Friday’s visit is not Kerry’s first to Cuba. He went there in 2000, while he was serving as a US senator for Massachusetts.
Ed­ward Stettinius was the last US secretary of state to visit Cuba in March 1945. He served in both Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman’s administrations, but his visit to Cuba took place during Truman’s presidency.Ed­ward Stettinius was the last US secretary of state to visit Cuba in March 1945. He served in both Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman’s administrations, but his visit to Cuba took place during Truman’s presidency.
9.28am ET14:289.28am ET14:28
The new sign for the US embassy is already up.The new sign for the US embassy is already up.
Updated at 9.31am ETUpdated at 9.31am ET
9.28am ET14:289.28am ET14:28
Hello and welcome to our live blog.Hello and welcome to our live blog.
John Kerry has arrived in Havana for the flag-raising ceremony at the US embassy, in the first visit to the island by a US secretary of state in more than 70 years.John Kerry has arrived in Havana for the flag-raising ceremony at the US embassy, in the first visit to the island by a US secretary of state in more than 70 years.
The flag-raising is largely ceremonial and will not change the status of the building, which like its Cuban counterpart in Washington, was converted from an interests section to an embassy last July. Cuban foreign minister Bruno Eduardo Rodríguez visited Washington to reopen the Cuban embassy.The flag-raising is largely ceremonial and will not change the status of the building, which like its Cuban counterpart in Washington, was converted from an interests section to an embassy last July. Cuban foreign minister Bruno Eduardo Rodríguez visited Washington to reopen the Cuban embassy.
The embassy in Havana, a seven-story building on the seafront, reopened as an interests section in 1977 after closing in 1961.The embassy in Havana, a seven-story building on the seafront, reopened as an interests section in 1977 after closing in 1961.