Cubans hail diplomatic ties with US

As word spread that the United States will soon turn its interests section into a full-fledged embassy in Havana, Cubans standing outside the mission voiced hope for a better future.

Hundreds of Cubans wait at a square nicknamed the "Park of Sighs" for hours every day for their turn to enter the nearby interests section in the hope of getting a visa.

"They should have done this many years ago," said Freddy Torres, 40, among the crowd at the park.

The interests section, a building on Havana's famous seafront Malecon boulevard, opened in 1977, some 16 years after the United States broke relations with communist Cuba.

But later this summer US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to travel to Havana for a ceremony that would include the raising of the US flag outside the embassy.

US President Barack Obama and Cuban counterpart Raul Castro exchanged letters on Wednesday stating that diplomatic relations will be restored on July 20.

The Cuban government indicated that it will open its mission in Washington that same day, but no date has been set for the ceremony to open the US embassy in Havana.

"God willing this news will change the situation," said Maria Caridad Fernandez, 51, who has had three visa requests rejected in recent years.
Juan Ruberto Fernandez, 77, said he "never thought that Cuba and the United States could come to an agreement because we were like a cat and mouse."

"This is very good and it will benefit everybody," Fernandez said.

Yunia Cisneros, a 33-year-old singer, was hoping to get a visa to attend a music festival in North Carolina.

"This news raises great hopes among Cubans because we've had many years of enmity with the United States. It could improve the economy a lot and increase cultural exchanges," Cisneros said.

"If Secretary Kerry comes, this means that this thing is very serious," she said.

- Embargo still standing -

While Cubans were happy at the announcement, there were no outward acts of celebration in the streets of Havana.

Many stressed that the priority was the lifting of the 1962 US embargo against Cuba, which the government has blamed for the island's economic woes.
"The only thing I've heard since I was born was the embargo," said Maria, a 23-year-old souvenir shop worker. "The opening of the embassy opens the door to many possibilities."

As he announced the imminent restoration of diplomatic ties, Obama renewed his call on Wednesday for the US Congress to lift the embargo.

The economic sanctions are among a slew of issues that the two nations will still have to work out after they open the embassies in order to normalize relations.

American jazz musician Douglas Little, who happened to be in Havana with his band Charanga Tropical during Wednesday's announcement, noted that the United States has diplomatic relations with Vietnam even though it went to war with that country.

"It's incongruent for us to have such a bad relationship with one country for so long," Little told AFP. "We don't even know why it's still the case."