Saturday, February 21, 2015

Before U.S.-Cuba Meeting, Venezuela’s Maduro Flies to Meet with Fidel and Raul Castro

2/21/2015

HAVANA – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro traveled to Cuba last Tuesday and met with his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, and with ex-President Fidel Castro, local media reported Friday.

“I was in Cuba... I took advantage of it being Tuesday of Carnival and I visited Commander Fidel Castro, who sends greetings to all the people of Venezuela,” Maduro said in a speech cited Friday in official media including the Prensa Latina news agency and the Cubadebate Web site.

According to those reports, while in Havana the Venezuelan president visited the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, with whom he principally conversed about topics “of world interest,” such as “peace” and “climate change.”

Castro, 88, whose state of health sparked new rumors in December and January, reappeared in Cuban media a month ago with the publication of one of his articles and the news of his meeting with Brazilian theologian Frei Betto and Cuban university dean Randy Perdomo.

Last Feb. 3, the Cuban press also published photos of the ex-president’s meeting with Perdomo, the first shots of Castro to be released in five months.

Friday’s news said that during his stay in Havana, Maduro also met with Cuban President Raul Castro, though no details about what they talked about were reported.

Cuba and Venezuela are political and economic allies, and the two governments have maintained an accord since 2000 that covers many fields of cooperation, including an energy pact by which the island receives 100,000 barrels of oil per day. 


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