U.S. flag set to fly over Havana on Friday

HAVANA — The United States and Cuba will enter a new phase in their long, tumultuous history Friday when the American flag is raised outside the recently reopened U.S. Embassy along this city’s historic waterfront.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will oversee the event, which follows a similar flag-raising ceremony outside the Cuban Embassy in Washington, D.C., last month. The events represent the latest steps in the changing relationship between the two nations since President Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro announced an end to the diplomatic freeze in December.

To help the raise the flag, American officials are bringing back three of the U.S. Marines who lowered it 54 years ago when the U.S. cut off ties with Cuba at the peak of the Cold War. A wave of Americans is expected to attend, including members of Congress, businessmen and women and academics who have lobbied for the changes.

Despite the euphoria, many are wondering why Cuban dissidents have been left out.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a Republican presidential candidate, sent a letter to Kerry earlier this week calling the decision a “slap in the face” to the dissidents who continue to face political persecution, beatings and arrest.

Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White dissident movement in Havana, was one of 90 people arrested Sunday for several hours after holding protests. The group donned masks of Obama to protest that Cuba was not required to improve its human rights record as part of the deal. She said it was insulting to leave out dissidents from the flag-raising ceremony.

“It’s a way to silence those of us who are fighting every day to achieve some dignity in this country,” she said.

Supporters of Obama’s reconciliation with Cuba say it’s an unfortunate but necessary move to continue dialogue. Geoff Thale, the program director of the Washington Office on Latin America, said the State Department was faced with the difficult task of maintaining good relations with the Cuban government while continuing its support of the dissidents and other members of the island's emerging civil society.

“That’s not an easy needle to thread,” he said in Havana this week.

The compromise is to invite dissidents and other Cubans to the residence of the U.S. mission's chief later in the day Friday. Thale said that by doing that, the Cuban government will be satisfied and the dissidents should be content spending time with Kerry and other U.S. officials.

“That’s smart diplomacy,” he said.

Constructions crews have been preparing the site of the flag-raising for days. The biggest question remaining is how many average Cuban citizens will turn out to witness the historic moment.

The American building was only redesignated as a U.S. Embassy last month. Before that, it served as the U.S. Interests Section since 1977. In that form, it was the focus of decades of anti-American protests, with Cubans once erecting 138 flagpoles to block the view of the building.

The ongoing political tension between the U.S. and Cuba was shown in Cuba’s official newspaper Granma on Thursday, the 89th birthday of Fidel Castro, the former leader of the revolution. Most of the paper was dedicated to articles chronicling his endurance and longevity along with well wishes from Latin American leaders.

Castro himself penned a piece blasting several aspects of America’s past, from its use of nuclear bombs in World War II to the “numerous millions of dollars” it owes Cuba for its decades-long embargo.

The paper did not make a single reference to Friday’s flag-raising or the improving relationship between the two countries.