Cuban President Raul Castro demanded on Wednesday that the United States return the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, lift the half-century trade embargo on Cuba and compensate his country for damages before the two nations re-establish normal relations.
Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged on Thursday 250 billion dollars in investment in Latin America over the next five years as part of a drive to boost resource-hungry China’s influence in the region.
The importance of forging closer strategic ties between China and Latin America was underlined by Alicia Barcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), in her speech to the China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean two-day ministerial forum that took place in Beijing.
Brazil's new foreign minister Mauro Vieira has left for Beijing to attend the first ministerial meeting between China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, CELAC, according to reports from Brasilia.