Friday, April 13, 2012

Calderón's 24 hours in Cuba

Calderón finally went on an official visit to Cuba - finally, as it's long planned and repeatedly postponed - where he met the unelected President Raúl Castro, and notably condemned the U.S. embargo against the island. He did not meet with, it seems, any of the Cuban dissidents to the regime, and as far as official declarations go, nor do any major announcements, agreements, etc appear to have been signed in the short visit (he also went to Haiti).

It wasn't Calderón's first visit to Cuba - he went as PAN president in 1998 - but many thought this official state visit wouldn't come to pass given the not too friendly declarations a few months back from Fidel Castro, who in his infinite wisdom suggested that "the empire didn't let" AMLO win in 2006, meaning that the U.S. somehow rigged the 2006 election. Hence, Calderón was a spurious president. And on this visit, Felipe did not meet Fidel.

2 comments:

  1. "...he unelected President Raúl Castro" typo?

    Since the Juarez administration, Mexican foreign policy has been to foreign governments as they are, not as one might wish them to be. Under the Estrada Doctrine of the 1930s (an extension of the Juarez Doctrine), Mexico only claims to be a refuge for those persecuted by their government. That the Fox Administration bought off on U.S. concerns about Cuba (mostly the result of having Jorge Casteñeda in the Foreign Ministry) was an anomaly in Mexican-Cuban relations.

    Fidel Castro hasn't been a government official in years, just a very well known retiree. A retiree who spent many years in Mexico, and is highly respected by Latin Americans, but protocol would limit Calderón's contacts to official people.

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  2. OOPS... my typo! "... has been to accept foreign governments as they are..."

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