CUBA / FILE: Angolan president Jose Eduardo Dos Santos arrives in Cuba, Havana slams EU embargo against Zimbabwe

Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos arrived in Cuba on Thursday (September 20) for talks with interim Cuban President Raul Castro. Dos Santos thanked the Cuban people for their many years of support upon his arrival in Havana. "My first objective is to greet the Cuban people, thank Cuba because it was always at Angola's side," he said at Jose Marti International Airport. Dos Santos, whose visit will extend through Sunday (September 23) is expected to meet with provisional President Raul Castro during his stay. The Angolan head of state said he will discuss bilateral issues on the visit. Dos Santos traveled with Foreign Minister Joao Bernardo de Miranda and officials in education, health, water and energy and public works. Cuba and Angola have maintained close relations over the past 30 years. More than 300,000 Cuban soldiers fought in the War in Angola from 1975. According to a 1988 accord, Cuba pulled its soldiers out in 1991. Meanwhile, Cuba's Minister of Foreign Affairs criticized an EU embargo against Zimbabwe on Thursday (September 20) during a conference with visiting officials from the African nation. Zimbabwe's Minister of Foreign Affairs Simbarashe Mumbengegwi met his Cuban counterpart Felipe Roque Perez in Havana as part of the 10th inter-governmental conference between the two countries. Perez Roque, one of the most vocal critics of the U.S. embargo on Cuba that costs the island nation billions of dollars annually, slammed the economic sanctions. "We firmly reject the economic blockade that has been imposed on Zimbabwe. We reject the pressure and the blackmail against Zimbabwe and its people," he said. The sanctions, which include an arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze, were initially triggered by the controversial distribution of white-owned commercial farms to mainly landless blacks and Mugabe's disputed re-election in 2002. Critics say the seizures have destroyed Zimbabwe's economy, turning the country from a regional agricultural leader to a nation barely able to feed itself amid a deepening crisis marked by food and fuel shortages and inflation above 1,200 percent. Mumbengewi said: "You can always count on Zimbabwe for support and solidarity in all international forums for Cuba's positions and in particular, the opposition in existence to efforts by the United States to interfere in Cuba's domestic affairs." In the conference presided over by Cuban Minister of Foreign Investment Marta Lomas, the nations discussed deepening their ties by producing and marketing biopharmaceuticals and animal vaccines. A Cuba health program has set up 34 hospitals in the impoverished African nation where hundreds of Cuban doctors provide medical care.

ITN Source | September 22, 2007

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