Raul Castro in Caracas for ALBA Summit

HAVANA TIMES – Cuban President Raul Castro arrived in Venezuela this Tuesday morning to attend the extraordinary summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), reported Progreso Semanal.

The agenda of the meeting is to analyze the situation between Washington and Caracas which has gone beyond a bilateral matter since the recent meeting of the Union of South American Nations UNASUR.

The foreign ministers of UNASUR released two official statements at the conclusion of their meeting in Quito. One, rejects as interventionist Washington’s decision to declare Venezuela a risk to its national security. The other supports an internal political dialogue of all the Venezuelan democratic forces but within the existing constitution in the country.

The two high-level meetings (UNASUR and ALBA) come only weeks before the Presidential Summit of the Americas in Panama set for April 10-11, to which Cuba has been invited for the first time.

President Obama hopes to reach the Panamanian gathering with a favorable position based on the restoration of relations with the government in Havana. The third round of negotiations between high level delegations from the two countries took place on Monday in Havana, as part of an ongoing process to clear the way to the opening of embassies in the respective capitals.

A note published by the Cuban Foreign Ministry called the meeting “professional”, and without setting a date, announced the agreement to “maintain communication in the future as part of this process.”