During the 12th interparliamentary meeting between Cuban and Mexican legislators, held this weekend in Mérida, Yucatán, Ricardo Alarcón, head of the Cuban parliament, called for more extensive trade ties between Cuba and Mexico, which are remarkably weak: Reportedly totaling only around 250 million dollars yearly.
This is truly, truly low, given the longtime "special relationship" between the two countries. According to the CIA Factbook, Mexico is not even on the list of major import-export partners - behind, notably, even the U.S!
While historically the ties between Cuba and Mexico were strong, relations drastically cooled during the Fox years, thanks both to President Vicente Fox and his foreign minister Jorge Castañeda.
Alarcón, however, expressed hope that Calderón will visit the island next year - a previously scheduled visit was earlier cancelled. Will Calderón do so, or will he rather leave office without, despite having "normalized" relations a few years back?
(and he would be one of the very first presidents not to have done so -even Fox visited Cuba)
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