(Video: Cuba’s blue, red and white-starred flag was hoisted Monday at the country’s embassy in Washington in a symbolic move signaling the start of a new post-Cold War era in U.S.-Cuba relations. (July 20))

WASHINGTON (AP) — Even as the United States and Cuba restore full diplomatic relations, the tensions that remain between the longtime foes aren’t being ignored.

Cuba’s foreign minister, speaking at the country’s new embassy in Washington, slammed the United States for continuing to hold on to the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba. And he cited Cuban independence leader Jose Marti, noting that Marti had warned of America’s “excess craving for domination.”

With several hundred people looking on from the streets just outside the gates, the Cuban flag was raised at the embassy this morning. The spectators cheered as the Cuban national anthem was played. Three Cuban soldiers in dress uniforms stood at the base of the flagpole and raised the flag.

Hours earlier, an agreement to restore normal ties between Washington and Havana took effect.

The United States and Cuba severed diplomatic relations in 1961 and since the 1970s had been represented in each other’s capitals by limited service interests sections.