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Across the country, it seemed as if virtually all of Cuba was glued to a television or listening to a live radio broadcast.

“We agree with what Kerry said,” said Julio Garcia, a 51-year-old mechanic. “More democracy, elections, we hope for that to come with this diplomatic opening.”

Dissidents were not invited to the embassy ceremony, avoiding tensions with Cuban officials who typically boycott events attended by the country’s small political opposition. The State Department said it had limited space at what it called a government-to-government event, and invited dissidents to a separate afternoon flag-raising at the home of the embassy’s chief of mission.

Giant Cuban flags hung from the balconies of nearby apartment buildings and people gathered at windows with a view of the embassy.

“I wouldn’t want to miss it,” Marcos Rodriguez, 28, said outside the embassy. He said he and many other Cubans hope the diplomatic thaw will bring “social and economic benefits for all Cubans.”

High-ranking Cuban officials, U.S. business executives and Cuban-Americans who pushed for rapprochement gathered inside the former U.S. Interests Section, newly emblazoned with the letters “Embassy of the United States of America.”

Kerry was then scheduled to meet with Cuba’s foreign minister, the country’s Roman Catholic archbishop and, separately, a hand-picked group of dissidents.

Soon after Kerry heads home Friday evening, the Cuban and U.S. diplomats who negotiated the embassy reopening will launch full-time into the next phase of detente: expanding economic ties between the two nations with measures like re-establishing direct flights and mail service.