Cubans hail diplomatic ties with US
July 02, 2015 02:20
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.
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