Havana (CNN) -- Church bells
rang out Wednesday afternoon in Havana, marking a major moment in history -- Cuba and the United States are
renewing diplomatic relations after decades of ice-cold
tension.
Word of the massive
change was met with passionate opinions and some protests in the United States.
And tearful celebrations erupted in the streets of the island after President
Raul Castro announced the news in a televised address.
Dissident Cuban
blogger Yusnaby Perez tweeted that his neighbor asked him whether a change in
U.S.-Cuban trade relations would mean that he could finally afford to buy meat.
Yoani Sanchez, a
well-known Cuban blogger, decried what she described as a carefully plotted
victory for the Castro regime in the swap of detained U.S. contractor
Alan Gross for Cuban spies imprisoned in America.
"With the main
obstacle for the re-establishment of diplomatic relations eliminated, the only
unknown is the next step," she wrote in a column for 14ymedio.com.
"Is the Cuban government planning another move to return to a position of
force vis-a-vis the U.S. government? Or are all the cards on the table this
time, before the weary eyes of a population that anticipates that the Castro
regime will also win the next move."
Even with the next
steps unclear, happiness spread quickly through a market in the heart of Cuba's
capital, where crowds watched speeches from Castro and U.S. President Barack
Obama announcing the news on TV screens. "In the audience," 14ymedio reported,
"many threw kisses to Obama and hugged each other."
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