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The Latest: Kerry to raise US flag over Havana embassy

A worker tests the audio equipment in the patio of U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba,Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015. The US embassy in Cuba will hold a ceremony on Friday, Aug. 14, to raise the U.S. flag, to mark its reopening on Havana’s historic waterfront. Ordinary Cubans will cheer, U.S. business executives will network and Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with Cuba’s foreign minister, the country’s Roman Catholic archbishop and a hand-picked group of dissidents. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) A worker tests the audio equipment in the patio of U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba,Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015. The US embassy in Cuba will hold a ceremony on Friday, Aug. 14, to raise the U.S. flag, to mark its reopening on Havana’s historic waterfront. Ordinary Cubans will cheer, U.S. business executives will network and Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with Cuba’s foreign minister, the country’s Roman Catholic archbishop and a hand-picked group of dissidents. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

By Associated Press August 14, 2015 1 min read

HAVANA (AP) – The latest on ceremonies to raise the U.S. flag over the embassy in Havana after 54 years of broken diplomatic relations:

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8:25 a.m.

Some 200 Cubans already have gathered near the U.S. Embassy along Havana’s seafront Malecon boulevard ahead of the official ceremony to raise the U.S. flag over the building for the first time in 54 years.

Twenty-eight-year-old Marcos Rodriguez says he’s come “because I wouldn’t want to miss it.” He voices the hopes of many on the island, expressing “hope for social and economic benefits for all Cubans.”

Giant Cuban flags hang from the balconies of nearby apartment buildings and people are gathering at their windows with a view of the embassy.