Latin diplomacy

Mexico’s ambassador in Havana tells AP that he’s optimistic that relations with Cuba will normalize this year, ending the hangover that lingered from the body-blows exchanged by Fidel and Fox a few years ago. An exchange of foreign minister visits is expected, the ambassador says, and nobody will interfere in anybody else’s internal affairs.

And an unfinished part of Guatemala’s agenda in the recent vice presidential visit to Cuba was to get Cuba to agree to establish a “school of rural medicine” in Totonicapán. The Guatemalan press reports that Cuba is reviewing a Guatemalan proposal, and Vice President Espada hopes for an agreement within months.

Cuba's doctor diplomacy

Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom, inaugurated last month, has made relations with Cuba a diplomatic priority. His new government’s first official visit was that of Vice President Rafael Espada, who traveled to Cuba last week.

There was lots of talk of good relations and increased cooperation. “We have much to learn” from Cuba, Espada said. He recalled to La Jornada that Cuba was the first to provide emergency aid after recent hurricanes. 294 Cuban doctors are now working in Guatemala, and 347 Guatemalans are earning medical degrees at Cuba’s Latin American School of Medicine. The two governments plan greater cooperation in the health sector, and will explore ways to collaborate in energy, mining, and petroleum.

Coverage in Spanish from La Jornada here, AP here, and ANSA here.

This was not an earth-shaking event by any means, but it illustrates a reality that a) helps to drive Cuban diplomacy and b) frustrates U.S. efforts to isolate Cuba and to enlist other countries in pressing for political change in Cuba.

Guatemala, like other Latin American countries, has a democratic system but does not reject relations with Cuba. For Latin American countries, relations with Cuba and votes to condemn the U.S. embargo at the UN have long been a low-cost way to needle Washington. But today, something more important is in play: the concrete benefits of Cuban medical and educational aid programs. Even as Cuba admits that the aid programs are straining delivery of medical services at home, there’s no denying that these programs help to consolidate relationships abroad.

And as this visit, last month’s Brazilian visit and aid package, and other developments show, Cuban diplomacy has not gone on vacation since Fidel Castro left the scene.

Odds and ends

• In Granma, descriptions of the ten new Cuba-Brazil agreements.

• Cuban American groups in Miami call on Cubans to stay home on Sunday and not participate in the electoral “farce,” and they say they will release statements to the same effect from Cuban dissidents.

• Elizardo Sanchez’ group reports that the Cuban political prisoner population dropped from 283 to 234 last year, but the human rights situation did not improve, as the government relies less on long-term imprisonment and more on harassment and short-term detentions.

• President Bush suspended Title III of the Helms-Burton law yesterday, as he and his predecessor have done every six months since the law took effect. His action continues to block the ability of Cuban Americans to bring lawsuits in U.S. courts against investors in Cuba whose investments touch their former properties. The President said his action “is necessary to the national interests of the United States and will expedite a transition to democracy in Cuba.”

• Guatemala’s new president says relations with Cuba will strengthen, expresses “profound appreciation” for Cuban doctors working in his country, and is talking with Cuba about possible Cuban aid to promote literacy.