Latin America

Cuban President Raul Castro will make a visit to France this coming February, government spokesperson Stéphane Le Foll said today in Paris.

US President Barack Obama said that he would love to travel to Cuba in 2016, but only if he can also meet on the island with dissidents, he declared in an interview published today.

After several months of silence, Fidel Castro published today on the front pages of the Cuban newspapers his open letter to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, in the wake of the resounding electoral defeat of his United Socialist Party in legislative elections last Sunday.

The migratory crisis that keeps some 5,000 Cuban migrants stranded in Costa Rica will be one of the prioritized items on the agenda that is to take President Luis Guillermo Solis to Cuba next week, official sources told DPA.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) confirmed on Wednesday that the opposition secured the last two disputed seats following Sunday’s legislative elections, reaching an absolute majority of two thirds, or 112 of the National Assembly’s 167 seats, DPA reported.

One of the thorniest issues to achieve a full normalization in US-Cuba relations are the multiple property claims, in the billions of dollars, that both countries have with the other. Talks are taking place in Havana today on the issue.

Venezuela’s opposition secured a resounding victory yesterday in the legislative elections, ending the hegemony at the legislature maintained by supporters of Hugo Chavez and his hand-picked successor Nicolas Maduro over the past 17 years.

Venezuelans began voting today to elect the 167 members of the new National Assembly (one-chamber Congress) for the legislative period 2016-2021, amid a marked polarization between the ruling party and the opposition, reported dpa news.

The odyssey of over 4,000 Cuban migrants stranded in Costa Rica (and another thousand in Panama) remains unresolved after Guatemala refused to make a bridge to reach the United States.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro declared today that Sunday’s legislative elections will decide whether the country moves forward “or falls off the precipice,” DPA reported.