“It is time to agree, not impose. Time to build, not obstruct.” Mexico’s yet-to-be-confirmed president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto. “I think only North Korea has a more restrictive regime than ours.” Luis Videgaray, Peña Nieto’s campaign coordinator, on energy regulation. “Most importantly, there is a need to update the people’s mentality. Many people in Cuba think that updating the private sector means adopting capitalism. It will take Cuba a long time to accomplish what China did.” Xu Shicheng, a Cuba expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Cuban President Raúl Castro visited China and Vietnam in early July on his first visit to either country since he formally took over from his brother Fidel in February 2008. He stopped over in Russia en route back home, his second visit to the country. Marino Murillo, the main architect of Castro’s tentative economic reforms, spent a week in Beijing in late February, where he met China’s deputy PM Hui Liangyu and spent much of his time at China’s national reform and development commission. China’s President Hu Jintao, who has visited Cuba three times, emphasised that political and economic relations…