(Details, Obama’s statements and Kerry) by Daniel Trotta and Lesley Wroughton WASHINGTON / HAVANA, July 1 (Reuters) – Barack Obama has formalized Wednesday restoration of diplomatic relations Washington and Havana, which will be realized by reopening embassies closed for over a half century. The date of the resumption of relations is the 20th of July. “There was one year, it might have seemed impossible that the US can once again hoisted their colors (…) over an embassy in Havana,” said the US president in a statement in the Rose Garden of the White House. “This is another demonstration that we must not remain prisoners of the past,” said Obama, who noted that relations between the two countries were broken in 1961, the year of his birth. “When something does not work, we can – and must -. Change” Isolate Cuba, said the president did nothing served to promote democracy on the island. “It did not work for fifty years (…) and this has only made even more difficult the lives of the Cuban people,” he said. US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is in Vienna for negotiations on Iran’s nuclear announced that he would travel to Havana to hoist the Stars and Stripes on the American Embassy. He was the first head of the US diplomacy to visit Cuba for 70 years. Almost simultaneously, Cuba announced that President Raul Castro had sent the US President a letter informing of his decision to restore diplomatic relations between the two countries and that embassies would be opened on 20 July. This agreement embodies the historic announcement of a normalization of relations launched in mid-December by Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro. Since the breakup, the two countries have “interest sections”. This evolution is only one step of the process of normalization of a situation resulting from the Cold War, Cuba remains particularly subject to the embargo imposed by the United States and only the Federal Congress can lift. The secret negotiations between Washington and Havana have beginning in mid-2013 (ID: nL5N0X71X7). They led to the historic announcement of 17 December. A series of bilateral meetings have taken place since, in Havana and Washington, to achieve this standardization. The latest took place on 21 and 22 May at the State Department in Washington. On Wednesday, the Cuban government issued a statement asking the United States to lift the economic embargo against Cuba, this cease broadcasting emissions in the island and halt programs “subversive”. LINK For CHRONOLOGY relations between the US and Cuba ID: nL6N0U14KJ) (With Jeff Mason, Roberta Rampton and Matt Spetalnick; Sérisier Pierre Henri-Pierre André, Tangi Salaün, Nicolas and Guy Delame Kerivel for the French service)
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