Mexico Beckons Cuba

Important Meeting Today

         Cuba's 84-year-old President Raul Castro will arrive in Mexico this morning -- Friday, November 6th -- after receiving a special invitation from his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto. Mexico, which conducts over $500 billion worth of trade yearly with the United States, wants to sharply increase last year's $374 million worth of commerce with Cuba. Mr. Castro feels much more comfortable doing business with Mexico than with the United States. The Mariel Port, 28 miles southwest of Havana, has received a splendid billion-dollar upgrade largely financed by Brazil and is now a key Economic Zone for Cuba. Seven foreign companies, two of them Mexican, have already signed key investment deals at the Mariel Zone.

        Socorro Flores is Mexico's Deputy Foreign Minister for Latin American Affairs. She released this statement: "We believe we are in a privileged position to have more presence on the beautiful island of Cuba because it's close, we share the Caribbean Sea, and because of many things, including language, that unify us."

     Claudia Ruiz Massieu is Mexico's Minister of Foreign Affairs. She released this statement on the eve of Castro's arrival in Mexico today: "We are very happy this is his first state visit to our country amid the existing new, revitalized relations."

      Enrique Pena Nieto, the President of Mexico since 2012, personally requested today's visit from Cuban President Raul Castro. Taking advantage of a thawing in U.S.-Cuban relations engineered by U. S. President Barack Obama, President Nieto wants to sharply increas trade between Mexico and Cuba. The two prior Mexican Presidents -- especially Vincente Fox but also Felipe Calderon -- were conservatives who were antagonistic towards Cuba at the behest of the George W. Bush presidency. But Nieto is different from Fox much like Obama is different from Bush. Nieto says, "Except for Fox and Calderon following the Bush policy, Mexico had a history of being Cuba's best friend, or at least one of them. I want to reestablish that relationship." New trade agreements will help, but Nieto will also discuss with President Castro today a topic that irks him. He says human traffickers who make money enticing Cubans to defect to the U. S. through Mexico are worried that improved U.S.-Cuban relations will end U. S. laws that greatly favor Cuban exiles, such as the Wet Foot/Dry Foot law that allows Cubans, and only Cubans, to remain in the U. S. with welfare assistance merely if they touch U. S. soil. Fearing such laws may finally end, President Nieto says Mexico is having to deal with an influx of Cubans being told by traffickers that special U. S. privileges for Cubans will end soon. Some traffickers using the Mexican route for Cubans to reach the U. S., have upped their price from $5,000 to $10,000, says Nieto.

       Mexican President Pena Nieto is a great admirer of Cuba's revolutionary legend Fidel Castro, and he has visited the 89-year-old Fidel in his Havana home. Today marks Raul Castro's first visit to Mexico as Cuba's President but Fidel last visited Mexico as President in 2002 when Bush's ally, Vincente Fox, treated him rudely. 

      While in Havana, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto asked Fidel Castro, "In December of 1956 you, Raul, Che, Camilo, and 78 other rebels left Mexico to go to Cuba and overthrow Batista. How much of that hazardous voyage aboard the old leaky yacht Granma do you still remember?" Fidel's son Alex, a professional photographer, takes the photos inside the family home. Alex later said {as reflected by the above photo}, "Mr. Nieto got more than he bargained for with that question because Papa eagerly spent at least fifteen minutes, gesturing and all, answering that question."

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