[Marxism] AP: Chavez makes first Cuba visit since Raul Castro became president

[Walter Lippmann <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(Exceptionally-interesting article here because of what it tells
us about the recent Rio Group summit where a peace agreement 
was reached between Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. How long it
will last remains to be seen of course. These things cannot be
relied on permanently, but it does seem that, for the time being,
Latin America as a body pulled together. In the absence of any
US diplomats, enough of a peace deal was made that it could even
satisfy that most demanding of observers, the former president 
of Cuba, one Fidel Castro Ruz, now Commentator-in-Chief. <g>

(Note, too, the good news on possible dropping of sanctions on
Cuba from the EU. This constitutes a strong rebuke to Bush and
the US after yesterday's photo-op with Bush and two Cubans who
no longer live on the island.)
==================================================================

International Herald Tribune

Chavez makes first Cuba visit since Raul Castro became president

The Associated Press
Saturday, March 8, 2008

HAVANA: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made his first visit to Cuba
since the presidency passed from Fidel Castro to his younger brother
Raul, state television reported Saturday.

Broadcast footage showed Raul greeting Chavez when he arrived in
Havana on Friday night along with Yolanda Pulecio, the mother of
French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, and Colombian Senator
Piedad Cordoba.

The two women have conducted an international campaign for the
release of Betancourt, who is the highest-profile hostage held by the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the rebel group known as the
FARC.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told reporters that Chavez
had met with Raul Castro. But he did not mention that the women had
accompanied the Venezuelan president to Cuba and it was unclear if
they were at the meeting.

Cuba and Venezuela are key political and economic allies and Chavez
is a close friend of the ailing 81-year-old Fidel Castro.

Chavez made the unannounced visit on his way home from a summit in
the Dominican Republic, where he and the presidents of Colombia and
Ecuador agreed to end a bitter dispute over a Colombian cross-border
raid on rebels in Ecuadorean territory.

Before the dispute ended, Chavez invited Pulecio into the gathering
of Latin American presidents in Santo Domingo and urged Colombian
President Alvaro Uribe to allow a multinational group into Colombia
to get out some of the FARC's hostages. Uribe rejected the idea.

The Cuban government did not release an agenda of Chavez's visit, 
and state media carried no other details. He was accompanied by
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro.

Chavez has visited Fidel Castro several times since he stepped aside
provisionally in mid-2006 after undergoing emergency intestinal
surgery. Fidel permanently resigned from the presidency on Feb. 19,
and Cuba's parliament elected his 76-year-old brother Raul to replace
him on Feb. 24.

Raul Castro's government has remained silent on the dispute between
the three Andean countries that began when Colombia carried out a
March 1 commando raid across the border in Ecuador that killed 25
people including a senior commander of the FARC, Colombia's largest
rebel group.

Fidel Castro welcomed the resolution of the dispute reached at the
summit, saying in a Friday statement that the only loser was U.S.
"imperialism."

Noting that no U.S. diplomats were present at the gathering, Castro
wrote that "peace was immediately sealed, along with the knowledge
that we are not obligated to wage war among nations that share solid
ties of brotherhood."

Also Saturday, the European Union's top development aid official said
he would work to persuade EU members to drop remaining diplomatic
sanctions against Cuba.

"I think the necessary conditions exist to open a new era in
relations," Louis Michel said during a news conference after meeting
with several top officials.

Imposed in 2003 after the island arrested 75 dissidents, the
sanctions were suspended after two years but are still subject to
periodic review and potential reinstatement. Cuba wants them lifted
entirely.

Sixteen of those arrested have since been released on medical parole
and another four were freed into exile in Spain last month.


=========================================
     WALTER LIPPMANN
     Los Angeles, California
     Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
     "Cuba - Un ParaÃso bajo el bloqueo"
=========================================

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