Bolivian President meets with Castro

[Maddy McCall]

Source: AP

HAVANA (AP) -- Bolivian President Evo Morales met with Fidel Castro for nearly three hours Thursday and said the convalescing Cuban leader looked well.

"He looked very recovered to me," said Morales, who also found the time to play racquetball with Vice President and Cabinet Secretary Carlos Lage, and meet with Castro's brother Raul, Cuba's interim president, during his previously unannounced daylong trip to Havana.

"I am very satisfied," Morales told state media before boarding his flight home Thursday night. "I am very much an admirer of Fidel."

Morales predicted more meetings with the Cuban president, saying "I am sure we will continue talking. He told me, 'Come back anytime to continue chatting, and debate important themes for humanity in any part of the world.'"

Castro on Thursday issued a new essay that lambasted President Bush, accusing him of trying to deceive Pope Benedict XVI into believing the U.S. has done nothing wrong in Iraq.



Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CUBA_BOLIVIA?SITE=MSJAD&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Judi Lynn]

1. Interesting! It was a surprise visit, to boot. They would have had a hard time

trying to figure out what to do about letting him visit Fidel Castro if the man is still to ill to meet anyone.

Here's a photo of Vice President Carlos Lage:
http://www.repubblica.it.nyud.net:8090/2006/08/sezioni/esteri/salute-castro/non-ha-cancro/ap_8650421_25140.jpg

I checked google. The two of them have met multiple times, one important date being the inauguration of Rafael Correa, the Preident of Uraguay.

http://estaticos01.cache.el-mundo.net.nyud.net:8090/elmundo/imagenes/2006/08/07/1154935464_0.jpg

[nerddem]

2. haha

for some reason those pictures remind me of last march when i went to a barber in la paz and i was explaining how to cut my hair (which is a little long for bolivian male standards), and i described it as "kind of like evo's but a little longer in the front." he and my mother laughed and they were teasing me the whole time.

[David__77]

3. I like Evo Morales.

I wonder if he will officially adopt socialism like Chavez has. It took Chavez several years in power before he did so.

It's hard to believe that just a few years ago, the neo-liberal "free trade" and privatization agenda was sweeping through Latin America full force.