The United States has reopened its embassy in Cuba with a special ceremony today presided over by US Secretary of State John Kerry who becomes the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Cuba since World War II. The US flag was raised by the same 3 US marines who brought it down on January, 4 1961.

“My friends, it doesn’t take a GPS to realize that the road of mutual isolation and estrangement that the United States and Cuba were traveling is not the right one and that the time has come for us to move in a more promising direction,” Kerry said. “In the United States, that means recognizing that U.S. policy is not the anvil on which Cuba’s future will be forged.”

Cuba reopened its embassy in Washington last month as Cuban leader Raul Castro and US President Barack Obama agreed to restore ties in December last year.