- Title: CUBA-USA/EMBASSY SEAL Seal goes up on U.S. embassy ahead of flag-raising ceremony
- Date: 14th August 2015
- Summary: PHOTO OF KERRY HANGING ON WALL INSIDE EMBASSY
- Embargoed: 29th August 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Cuba
- Country: Cuba
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVADQW1CML5970Y5UNJ1UQN1K3UX
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: In the early morning hours on Friday (August 14), workers placed the U.S. seal on the American Embassy in Havana ahead of the historic flag raising ceremony to take place later in the day.
Using flashlights to see, the personnel in charge gave journalists a glimpse of the iconic seal before hanging it on the embassy's exterior wall.
Once in place, finishing touches were made as curious bystanders snapped pictures with their cell phones.
In addition to journalists, photographers and camera crews, a handful of people were already in the streets surrounding the embassy, waving both U.S. and Cuban flags in excitement.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry travels to Cuba on Friday (August 14) to raise the U.S .flag at the recently restored American embassy in Havana, another symbolic step in the thawing of relations between the two Cold War-era foes.
Kerry, the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Cuba in 70 years, will be accompanied by aides, members of Congress and three U.S. Marines who last lowered the flag there in January 1961.
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 U.S. 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 U.S. travel and trade restrictions, but the Republican-controlled Congress has resisted his call to end America's wider economic embargo.
Restored diplomatic ties mean U.S. diplomats can travel more freely and increase staff. Cuba has also reduced the number of security guards who keep on eye on Cubans going in and out.
The task of normalizing overall relations is more complicated, however.
Cuba wants the United States to end the embargo, return the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in eastern Cuba, and halt radio and television signals beamed into Cuba.
The Americans will press Cuba on human rights, the return of fugitives granted asylum and the claims of Americans whose property was nationalized after Fidel Castro came to power. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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