After 50 years of hostility, neglected U.S. mission in Havana shows its age
HAVANA — The oceanfront building that will become the U.S. Embassy in Cuba has faced a relentless enemy assault for more than 60 years. None of its assailants was human.
Heat, sun, high winds and salty air have taken their toll. Throw in the hostility that has marked U.S.-Cuban relations for most of the past five decades, and even routine maintenance to the building is an ordeal.
The seven-story building is in a constant state of disrepair. Diplomats have learned to live with a leaky roof, crowded conditions and fire hazards. Supplies take months to arrive.
An internal State Department report from May 2014 likens the building to a "ship at sea," its crew often forced to make repairs with whatever they have at hand.
Soon, the U.S. and Cuban governments will announce re-establishment of the diplomatic relations, which were severed in 1961. The U.S. flag will replace the Swiss flag that has flown outside what is now known as the U.S. Interest Section. A new plaque will go up alerting passersby that the prominent building is again the U.S. Embassy, as it was in the 1950s before Fidel Castro led his revolution on the island.
Yet to be seen, though, is whether — and how much — renewed relations will ease the conditions that have made the Havana mission one of the most challenging outposts for American diplomats.
"We're in a building that was built in 1953, and all the systems were breaking down, the electrical system, the plumbing system. And it's not like you can just run out to Home Depot," said John Caulfield, who was chief of mission in Havana until mid-2014 and is now retired in Jacksonville, Fla.
There are no private stores under Cuba's socialist system, and the state controls access to most goods and services.
Caulfield said it was hard to discern whether difficulties in making repairs were part of a campaign of harassment or because of bureaucratic red tape.
"We needed to put a new air conditioning chiller for the roof, and you needed a crane to put it up there. It took a year," Caulfield said. "All cranes are controlled by the state."
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/after-50-years-of-hostility-neglected-us-mission-in-havana-shows-its-age/ar-BBkbCKm