Odds and ends

• Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, recovering from another round of cancer surgery, was visited by Fidel and Raul Castro, Granma reported over the weekend.  Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos will travel to Cuba Wednesday to confer with Chavez and Raul Castro, DPA reports.

• The Washington Post on Cuban oil drilling and the lack of U.S. preparedness.  This kinds of stands out: “A single Florida company is licensed to deliver oil dispersants to Havana. But there are no U.S. aircraft with contracts or permission to fly over Cuban waters. The current plan is to retrofit and deploy aging crop dusters from Cuban farms to dump the dispersants.”

• A final note on Senator Leahy’s delegation that held several meetings in Cuba February 23-24 – with President Raul Castro, a group of dissidents, Alan Gross, and others.  The meeting with Castro was “offensive” to Martha Beatriz Roque, who complained that it coincided with the anniversaries of the Brothers to the Rescue shootdown and the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo.  Independent journalist Pedro Argueyes Morán went her one better and said the Pope should cancel his visit to Cuba later this month. 

• Café Fuerte reported first on the passing of Angela Castro, sister of Fidel and Raul.  AP story here.

• Reuters: The Ministry of Basic Industries is being dissolved and replaced with new ministries of energy and mining.