MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Mujica delivers Obama message to Castro: 'let's talk about lifting the trade embargo”
Mujica with Obama at the White House during last month's visit to Washington Uruguay's president Jose Mujica delivered a message from Barak Obama to Cuba's Raul Castro proposing the opening of dialogue to discuss the blockade, reported the Montevideo media on Thursday. The occasion was the recent G77 summit held in Bolivia.
According to the weekly Busqueda, which regularly reports on Mujica's activities, the Uruguayan president met with Castro in Santa Cruz de la Sierra last 14 June and delivered the message which was coordinated when Mujica visited the White House last May.
Allegedly the message was that the US government was prepared to reach an “agreement” with Cuba, for among other things lifting the trade embargo which has been standing for 54 years.
“Castro showed great interest in the proposal” according to the report and Mujica left the meeting with Raul Castro, “quite optimistic”. Castro had a positive attitude towards the proposal as long as there were 'no conditions' from Washington.
The official line from the US has been that there must be an improvement in human rights conditions and political freedoms in the Castro brothers fiefdom before any softening of the blockade.
Last month former urban guerrilla Mujica, 79, and considered a leading figure in Latin America visited the US where he was received with full honors by President Obama and top figures of his administration.
At the White House Obama said that Mujica was a man “with an extraordinary credibility in democracy and human rights affairs” and “a leader in these fields in the whole of the western hemisphere”.
Allegedly during the meeting Obama said that now was the right time to reach an agreement with Cuba since he has only two more years in office, before a new president moves into the White House.
A year ago Mujica also visited Havana where he met Raul Castro and his brother Fidel Castro, and besides addressing the peace process in Colombia between the government and the FARC guerrilla, “they also talked about possible links with Washington”.
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Read all commentsWhat is it with these SA politicians whose first reaction to anything is to stick their index finger straight up in the air?
Jun 20th, 2014 - 12:16 pm 0Kickitoff and TMBOA are always at it but you expect that from ignorant bastards such as them: oh, that description also fits “No Money Pepe”.
I bet Obuma really wondered WTF he had got sitting opposite to him lecturing him in gibberish (rural Uruguayan Espanol), I almost felt sorry for him, almost.
The best way to get rid of the Castros is for the US to lift the trade embargo, and with no conditions. The simple fact that the Cubans would start to have access to the outer world, would speed up Castro's demise, and a chance for Cuba to extricate itself from the shit.
Jun 20th, 2014 - 02:05 pm 0Jack @ 2
Jun 21st, 2014 - 09:38 pm 0Yes, I agree. The 54-year-old US trade embargo hasn't exactly beeny successful, has it? Fidel Castro has used it to keep himself in power as well as paint a positive portrait of himself with Communists and fellow-travellers everywhere.
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