LatinNews Daily - 19 May 2011

Cuba: On 23 May US Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, speaking before an influential Cuban-American group in Miami, called for lifting restrictions on travel to Cuba and remittances and reiterated his willingness to meet with Cuban officials. However he vowed to maintain, with modifications, the 46-year-old US trade embargo against the island and said Cuba deprived its people of civil liberties and free elections. In a column published three days later, former Cuban President Fidel Castro said that Obama's speech could translate into a “formula of hunger" for the nation (Cuba), the remittances like alms and the visits to Cuba as propaganda for consumerism. However he added that Obama was "the most-advanced candidate in the presidential race."