Pope Francis’ visit to Cuba comes after he was credited with smoothing the diplomatic path between the US and Cuba as relations between the pair began to thaw out a year ago.
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While Pope Francis is in Cuba, chances are high that he will meet with former president Fidel Castro, though no specific time has been set, Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi has announced.
Pope Francis will do most of his speeches in Spanish during his upcoming tour of Cuba and America.
Titled “The necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba”, it denounces “the damage caused by this hostile policy for over five decades, which has cost the country billions, and has hampered the comprehensive development of Cuba’s children and youth”, according to state daily Granma. Lombardi said Francis had once changed planes in Cuba but had never visited.
Since he intervened, the two former countries agreed to re-establish full diplomatic relations, despite having a history of being at odds for more than 50 years.
Speaking to business leaders Wednesday at the quarterly meeting of the Business Roundtable in Washington, Obama said he does not expect “overnight transformation” in Cuba.
“My biggest suggestion would be for the BRT just to start having conversations on a bipartisan basis on lifting the embargo”. The White House has called on Congress to lift the blockade, which however was rejected by the majority of the legislature.
“He’s not going to hit Congress over the head about the embargo”, one of the officials said.
The foreign minister said that the United Nations needs to undergo a “profound reform” to democratise itself and so that the General Assembly may exercise the authority provided to it by the UN Charter and contain the “interference and voraciousness” of the 15-seat Security Council with its five veto-wielding permanent members: the U.S., Russia, China, France and Britain.
Although no bilateral meeting between the two leaders has yet been scheduled, “there will be interactions” at the world gathering, the government said.
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Fidel Castro, now retired at age 89, holds the record for the longest speech at the United Nations, at 4-1/2 hours.
