LatinNews Daily Report - 13 September 2013

DIPLOMACY | Meade visits Cuba. On 12 September Mexico’s foreign minister, José Antonio Meade Kuribreña, conducted a one-day official visit to Cuba. Since taking office last year Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto said that one of his foreign policy goals was to revitalise Mexico’s relations with the rest of Latin America, in particular with the Central American and Caribbean sub-region. Historically Mexico and Cuba enjoyed good and uninterrupted diplomatic relations since 1902 but this began to change under the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) government led by President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León (1994-2000), who criticised the lack of electoral democracy in Cuba. Relations took a further turn for the worse under the governments led by Vicente Fox (2000-2006), and Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) who hailed from the conservative Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) although the latter, in the final months of his mandate visited the island in a bid to repair relations. Meade’s visit, the first by a Mexican government official since Peña Nieto and the PRI took power last year, is intended as an attempt to further improve relations. Meade not only met his Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodríguez, but was also received by President Raúl Castro. Meade described the visit as “fruitful” and said that it represented “an opportunity to give relevance, new vigour and update the relationship”.

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