U.S.-Cuba, the difficult road to understanding

Washington, Jul 20 (RHC) For more than a few people here, the history of relations between the United States and Cuba would change when they saw the flag of the Caribbean country raised at the reopening of its embassy in Washington on a day like today, nine years ago.

 On July 20, 2015, relations were officially re-established, ending a cycle of more than half a century of unilateral severance of diplomatic relations by the United States. From then on, they thought, the road to rapprochement would begin.

Journalist David Montgomery witnessed the moment. He was reporting for the Washington Post at the time, and so he reflected it in the article he published on July 21, 2015.

"I had hopes that the governments were finally trying to repair relations," Montgomery told Prensa Latina, with the perception that on July 20, 2024, what exists is a setback in the steps that once existed.

"Nine years later, the perception is of a setback because Cuba has been back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism since 2021," Montgomery said from his perspective as a journalist.

The decision to return to full embassies in Washington and Havana came after Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro jointly announced the restoration of diplomatic relations in December 2014.

Montgomery's review for the Post noted "it was surprising how many non-Cubans knew the island's national anthem well enough to sing it (...) as the flag was raised over the newly rebuilt embassy on 16th Street NW. Then they joined in the delirious shouts of "Viva Cuba!"

"It's an incredible moment," Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, said at the time. "In the decades-long effort to normalize relations with Cuba, to stop the U.S. attacks and hostility toward Cuba (...) Suddenly we have a victory. That the flag is being raised... that's huge."

"For those of us committed to the values and aspirations of the Cuban Revolution, the flag was, as Fidel said in April 1959 when he was in this building, a reflection of Operation Truth," said intellectual James Early.

On July 20, in the midst of emotion and witnessing a historic moment, Early emphasized that raising that flag again "is a recognition of Cuba's right to sovereignty and self-determination.

The marble mansion opened its doors as the Cuban Embassy in 1919 and quickly established itself as a charming venue for society parties, Montgomery recalled in his report.

 Two years after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959, the U.S. government decided in 1961 to unilaterally break off relations with the Caribbean country.

In 1977, during the administration of President James Carter, both parties signed an agreement establishing the U.S. Interests Section in Havana and the Cuban Interests Section in Washington DC.

Although scholars of the subject affirm that during the administration of Barack Obama (2009-2017) the blockade was applied with full force, there were some advances, such as the removal of Cuba from the arbitrary list of state sponsors of terrorism in May 2015. In addition, under Obama, commercial flights and cruises resumed; direct mail began to arrive; and bilateral agreements were initialed to cooperate on various issues, including health, the environment, human and drug trafficking, and telecommunications.

However, the Republican successor, Donald Trump, reversed the progress to the point of adopting at least 243 additional coercive measures to strengthen the blockade against Cuba during his term in the Oval Office (2017-2021), in the midst of his policy of maximum pressure.

A few days before leaving office in January 2021, Trump reinstated Cuba on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, a decision to which the current Democratic president, Joe Biden, remains faithful. Almost at the end of his term in office, has not fulfilled the campaign promise to change his predecessor's policy toward the island. (Source: Prensa Latina)