American Flag Raised at U.S. Embassy in Havana

Secretary of State Kerry looks on as the flag flies over embassy for the first time in 54 years

With diplomatic ties restored last month, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke in Havana at the flag-raising ceremony—the first visit to the island by someone in his position since 1945.

In remarks at the embassy Friday, Mr. Kerry stressed the decades separating the U.S. and Cuba from the events that caused the countries to sever ties over 50 years ago.

“For more than half a century, U.S.-Cuban relations have been suspended in the amber of Cold War politics,” Mr. Kerry said, according to a prepared version of his remarks. “In the interim, a whole generation of Americans and Cubans have grown up and grown old. The United States has had 10 new presidents. In a united Germany, the Berlin Wall is a fading memory.”

Mr. Kerry said the U.S. policy in Cuba had not led to democratic transition in Cuba and added the new course will make it easier for the governments to engage.

“Having normal relations makes it easier for us to talk—and talk can deepen understanding even when we know full well that we will not always see eye-to-eye on everything,” Mr. Kerry said. “We are all aware that, that notwithstanding President Obama’s new policy, the overall U.S. embargo on trade with Cuba remains in place and can only be lifted by congressional action – a step we strongly favor.”

Cuban and American officials have had more high-level contacts in the past eight months than in all the years since ties were frozen in 1961—and the Cuban embassy in Washington, D.C., raised its flag on July 20. Yet fully normalizing relations is expected to take many more years.

Much of action in U.S.-Cuba policy will now come from Congress and lobbying efforts to lift the trade and travel embargoes.

Congressional opponents of normalization say they’re confident the status quo will remain in place, at least through 2016. Bills in the House and Senate to lift the embargo don’t yet have a critical mass of co-sponsors, and the leadership in both chambers is against the shift.

“He might as well be raising the white flag of surrender because that is what this shameful day is really about,” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R., Fla.) told reporters in Miami on Wednesday.

Friday morning’s ceremony also included Cuban-American poet Richard Blanco. He said when he received a call in June from the U.S. Interests Section and was asked to write and read a poem for the occasion, he burst into tears.

“This is something that has been in my heart and my soul since before I was even born,” he said. “I was already a world traveler, leaving Cuba in my mom’s womb seven months pregnant.”