LatinNews Daily - 19 May 2011

Cuba: The US trade secretary, Carlos Gutiérrez, came out strongly against recent declarations in support for lifting the US four-decade-long trade embargo on Cuba. Gutiérrez, a Cuban who emigrated as a child to the US four decades ago, declared in during a tour of Central America that "the embargo has been successful". Gutiérrez asked critics to think about "what would have happened if Fidel Castro had got access to funds" from trade with the US, pointing to the fact that Cuba "spent large amounts of money and military resources" to fund leftwing guerrilla groups in Angola, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Grenada in the 1970s and 1980s. Gutiérrez went on to say that it would be "naive" to think that the Cuban interim presidency of Raúl Castro, would bring any significant democratic change to the island. For Gutiérrez, Raúl just "prolongs the dictatorship" of his ailing brother, Fidel.