Vol. 79/No. 27      August 3, 2015

Guests joining the celebration came from all over the U.S., from California to Massachusetts, Illinois and Florida. Many had been fighting for decades against the U.S. policy of trying to overthrow the Cuban Revolution through military action, economic warfare, assassination attempts, the financing of armed counterrevolutionary groups, countless subversive programs and increasingly futile efforts to isolate the island politically and diplomatically.

The mood in the crowd was festive as several hundred waited more than an hour in the blazing heat and humidity of a Washington summer day for the activities to begin. During conversations many noted that it was the steadfastness and courage of the Cuban people and their revolutionary leadership that made this victory possible.

Among the participants in the day’s formal ceremonies and the reception that followed were members of the U.S. Congress, business people, students from Washington universities, Cuban-Americans who have worked for the normalization of relations and U.S. residents long active in defense of the Cuban Revolution. Representatives came from numerous African, Latin American and European embassies as well.

Roberta Jacobson, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, represented the U.S. government at the flag-raising and ceremony addressed by Cuba’s foreign minister. Jacobson led the U.S. negotiating team during the bilateral talks begun after the joint announcements Dec. 17 by U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro of the agreement to upgrade the existing Interests Sections of the two governments to full-fledged embassies. The completion of this process is understood as a first step toward normalization of relations.

Rodríguez was received later in the day by Secretary of State John Kerry, following which they held a joint press conference where both spoke of the “profound differences” that continue to exist between the two governments and the “long and complex” process of addressing them that remains ahead. These issues include the lifting of the multifaceted measures of U.S. economic warfare Cubans call the blockade, as well as the return to Cuba of the U.S.-held naval base at Guantánamo and, in Rodríguez’s words, discussing the “deep differences between Cuba and the United States with regard to our views about the exercise of human rights by all citizens the world over.”

At the same time, Rodríguez said, “we strongly believe that we can both cooperate and coexist in a civilized way, based on respect for these differences.”

Among those participating in the day’s activities was a delegation of some 30 Cubans, including current and former members of the National Assembly, former diplomats long involved in U.S.-Cuba relations, and leaders from a broad cross section of Cuban society — science, industry, medicine, sports, women, farmers, artists, writers and musicians, youth and more.

Ramón Sánchez-Parodi, who headed the Cuban Interests Section in Washington for 12 years following its opening in 1977, was among those present. In remarks published in the Cuban press he commented with satisfaction that he had been confident this day would come. “Decades have passed,” he said, “but it was worth it because the United States has recognized the resistance of the Cuban people and now we enter a new stage in bilateral relations.”

World-renowned artist Alexis Leiva Machado, better known as Kcho, voiced the sentiments of many when he noted that the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States was also Fidel’s achievement. Without the revolution, “Cuba could not have done what we have done,” he said, calling attention to the fact that Cuba was recently singled out by the World Health Organization as “the first country in the world to have eliminated the transmission of HIV and syphilis from mother to child.

“The enemy has recognized it made a mistake,” he said. “That’s a victory of more than 50 years of the revolution which is the people.”
 
 
Related articles:
‘Blockade must be lifted, Guantánamo returned’:
Speech by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez on
reopening of Cuban Embassy in US after 54 years  
 
 
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