MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela's Chavez: Unexpected and brief visit to Cuba

Pte. Raul Castro welcomed his counterpat Chavez

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived this weekend in Havana for a “working visit” with his Cuban colleague, Raul Castro, an official communique published Saturday in the island's press said without offering further details

Chavez's visit to Cuba, which had not been previously announced either in Caracas or Havana, is the fifth he is known to have made in less than a year. It coincides with the first anniversary of the resignation of convalescing Cuban leader Fidel Castro last Thursday, and with the anniversary next Tuesday of his brother Raul being sworn-in as head of state. The Cuban communique said that the visit "takes place a few days after the popular victory of the (Venezuelan) referendum approving the constitutional reform for the unlimited reelection of public officials." Gen. Castro went to meet Chavez and his delegation Friday night at Jose Marti International Airport. The Venezuelan president arrived with his Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, Energy and Petroleum Minister Rafael Ramirez (also president of the state-run oil company PDVSA), Planning Minister Haiman El Troudi, Agriculture Minister Elias Jaua, and Presidency Minister Luis Reyes. The Havana daily Granma, the official organ of the Communist Party, said that the visit began "with an embrace of the two presidents on the floor of the capital's air terminal, symbol of the unity of the two brotherly countries, and with the cries of 'Viva Cuba! Viva Fidel! and Viva Raul!' from Chavez." The newspaper published on its front page a black-and-white photo of the presidents, both in military uniforms, and recalled that Fidel Castro wrote last Feb. 12 in one of his "Reflections" that the Andean liberator Simon Bolivar "lives again in the revolutionary actions of Chavez." As is customary, the official communique issued Saturday did not say how long the visit will last, nor whether the Venezuelan president will meet with the octogenarian leader as he has done on his numerous trips to the island in recent years. Chavez's first visit to Cuba in 2008 was in March, the second in June and there were two more in September, at the beginning and end of an international tour that took him to Russia, China, France and Portugal. For his part, Raul Castro made a stop in Caracas last December on his first trip abroad as president, on his way to the Latin American summits organized by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Venezuela is the chief trade partner of Cuba, to which it sells more than 90,000 barrels of crude per day under preferential financial conditions that allow the island to pay with medical, educational and sports services. An official communique issued Saturday in Caracas by the Venezuelan government said that the two countries "maintain a dynamic relationship though numerous accords that unite them in economic, energy, technological and social affairs, and whose vision is to strenthen their integration." Chavez is the sixth Latin American president to visit Havana in less than two months, after Panama's Martin Torrijos, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, the Argentine Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Chile's Michelle Bachelet and Alvaro Colom of Guatemala. Fernandez and Bachelet were received by Fidel Castro and had their photos taken with him, but the three male presidents did not. The women had to be given preference because Fidel can't see everyone who comes to Havana, Gen. Raul Castro said as he was seeing off his Guatemalan colleague. Visiting Cuba in the coming months will be the president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, and Mexico's Felipe Calderon. (EFE)