The Cuban Embassy in Washington, D.C., reopened Monday morning, marking the official end to 61 years of hostility between the Cuban and American governments.
Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla was on hand in Washington to raise the Cuban flag as the Cuban and American National Anthems played in sequence.
The event was met with both fanfare and anger.
“I’m very happy,” said Lindolfo Carballo, a community organizer originally from El Salvador. “I’m only hoping the United States is going to [take] the next step, which is ending the embargo against Cuba.”
But the event was not without protest.
“The fact of the matter is the Cuban government and American government have come to an agreement, but the people are not included in any of this,” said José Badué, a Cuban-American whose father was executed in Cuba when his mother was pregnant with him. “None of these people here who supposedly represent the Cuban government were elected by the people. So the people have not spoken.”
It remains to be seen whether the United States will lift the embargo, originally issued in 1960, or address documented human rights violations including censorship and repression that have plagued Cubans for decades.
Only Congress has the authority to fully lift the embargo.
Watch event attendees react to the embassy opening in the video above.
