Residents discuss what was once a taboo topic after US secretary of state’s speech at reopened embassy is presented live on state television
The blazing Caribbean sun rose on Saturday on a US flag flying over Havana for the first time in 54 years. In the city, people discussed political reform with an openness that once would have been unimaginable in Cuba.
Speaking on Friday before the raising of the Stars and Stripes at the newly reopened US embassy, US secretary of state John Kerry called for systemic political change on the island, a topic that had remained taboo here despite a series of economic reforms and the re-establishment last month of diplomatic ties with the US that were severed during the cold war.
“We remain convinced the people of Cuba would be best served by genuine democracy, where people are free to choose their leaders,” Kerry said, going on to call for responsive institutions and independent civil society in this single-party state.
Read more:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/15/cuba-havana-john-kerry-us-embassy-democracy
