Cuban Flag Now Flying Over Brooklyn Borough Hall

On Friday afternoon, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams decided to raise the Cuban flag above the New York City flag at Brooklyn Borough Hall.

The gesture is a tribute to renewed ties between the U.S. and Cuba.

“At a time when there is unrest happening in areas all over the world, this is an important opportunity where we can highlight the possibilities of global goodwill,“ says Adams’ spokesman, Stefan Ringel.

Adams has been all about Cuba since ties were partially renewed this spring.

He and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo were among the first politicians to make a trip to the island when the U.S. softened its travel embargo, and Adams is planning to return with “a formal delegation” later this year, Ringel says.

Some of New York’s most prominent Cubans attended the flag-raising ceremony on Friday — including Pastor Felix Roldan from Ridgewood and Jitka Betancourt Cuesta, second secretary for Cuba’s permanent mission to the United Nations.

Also in attendance were representatives from two Brooklyn restaurants, Pilar Cuban Eatery in Bed-Stuy and Mojito Cuban Cuisine in Clinton Hill.

Asked by the New York Observer if he saw anything wrong with flying the flag of a nation with such a shoddy human-rights record over Brooklyn, the borough president reportedly replied:

“If you can show me one country that doesn’t have issues, if you can show me one country where innocent people are not shot by police officers, if you can show me one country where people are having issues being displaced from their home because of the cost of rent, if you can show me one country where people are not receiving adequate legal protection because of over-proliferation of prisons in their country, then I would say we cannot fly a flag over Borough Hall. But until we can rid all countries of that, we cannot challenge one country only. We are all in this together.”

All this Cuba love is really just foreplay for the main event on Sunday: a massive International Day of Friendship unity parade through the streets of Downtown Brooklyn.

Beginning at 1 p.m., parade marchers will carry 193 different flags from the Brooklyn Bridge to Cadman Plaza Park, where they will “stand and hold hands, with youth from all neighborhoods across Brooklyn forming a human chain around the park.”

Photo courtesy of Eric Adams/Twitter.