Obama and Castro formally re-establish full diplomatic ties

US President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro on Wednesday announced the re-establishment of full diplomatic ties between the two countries and the reopening of a US embassy in Havana and a Cuban one in Washington.

“A year ago it might have seemed impossible that the United States would be once again raising our flag, the stars and stripes, over an embassy in Havana,” Obama said in a statement in the White House Rose Garden.

The announcement came as Castro sent a letter to Obama saying that “Cuba has decided to re-establish diplomatic relations with the United States and open permanent diplomatic missions in our respective countries, on July 20, 2015,” official television said.

Cuba and the United States of America have had no diplomatic relations since 1961. The beginning of a process of normalizing relations between the two countries was announced on December 2014, after secret negotiations in Canada and Vatican City over preceding months, with the assistance of Pope Francis. The first step of this normalization of their relations was the removal of Cuba from the list of states sponsor of terrorism, last May.

Nevertheless, the US Congress continues to maintain the control of a commercial, economic, and financial embargo, which makes it illegal for U.S. corporations to do business with Cuba. Several members of Congress from both parties, including Cuban-American Senators Marco Rubio (R) and Robert Menendez (D), denounced this better relationship, arguing it would do little to improve human rights on the island.