Fidel Castro with Dilma Rousseff in Cuba

Dilma Rousseff and Fidel Castro on Jan. 27, 2014 in Havana. Photo: Alex Castro.

HAVANA TIMES — Fidel Castro met on Monday in Havana with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff where they discussed the recent expansion of the port of Mariel. Photos of the encounter taken by Fidel’s son Alex Castro appeared in the official cubadebate.cu website.

Rousseff told Castro she is pleased with the performance of the Cuban doctors “working in the most remote areas of Brazil,” reported dpa news.

More than 2,000 additional Cuban doctors began leaving for Brazil on Tuesday, to work in the “More Doctors” program, an agreement signed between the two governments and that includes the Pan American Health Organization. Around 4,000 Cuban physicians were already in Brazil since the last quarter of 2013.

Medical cooperation agreements signify a major currency earner for the Cuban government. Cuba currently holds international missions in 60 countries, where a total of 45,000 doctors are employed. Venezuela and Brazil are now the two with the most Cuban doctors.

The Brazilian government is funding the construction of the port of Mariel with a credit of 809 million dollars, in a second phase of expansion the financing will be increased by 290 million dollars.

On Sunday, Fidel Castro had lunch with the president of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner, who described the meeting as “memorable” in her account on the social network Twitter, where she published photographs.

Castro also received on Monday the prime minister of Jamaica, Portia Simpson-Miller said the official newspaper “Granma”, which published a photo of the meeting.

6 thoughts on “Fidel Castro with Dilma Rousseff in Cuba

  • Essa só terá o meu voto, Se antes da eleição, Se decidir a devolver, o meu direito adquirido, Como elevar o salário mínimo, Que deveria ser, Acima da inflação. Salário Mínimo ideal R$ 3.214,00 contra esse R$ 724,00 que só dão para as compras. Trinta anos trabalhei, Dez salários Mínimos pude ganhar, Com mais de seis salários pude de fato me aposentar, Dezoito anos depois com menos de três salários pude ficar. Minhas contas por mês é de R$ 3.214,00 e eu estaria ganhando mais de R$ 4.380,00 contra os R$ 2.172,00 que recebo atualmente, São dez anos de perdas, Lula era a nossa esperança, E nos decepcionou, Foi contra os trabalhadores, Como contra quem pode se aposentar. Dilma por sua vez repetiu no erro, Não soube governar, Como poderemos assumir nossos compromissos, como Casa, Condomínio, Energia, Água, Gás de rua, Compras, Seguro, Crediário, TV por assinatura, Telefone residencial, Celular, Passagens, Saúde, IPTU, IPVA, tudo isso fica impossível com baixo salário. Caso ela não se decida a favor dos aposentados com uma justa revisão, todos os aposentados vão se reunir para escolher outro partido que nunca estiveram sido eleitos. Partido da Causa Operária, Partido dos aposentados, Partido Verde, Partido da Comunidade Carente, Partido do Garotinho, E ainda tendo o apoio do Paulo Paim. 2014 será o dia da nossa reação, não podemos mais continuar assim, sendo ignorado por todos, que tiveram eleitos e nada fizeram pra nos ajudar. nunca mais, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Dilma Rousseff,

    Fernando Collor, Fernando Henrique, Lula, WASHINGTON REIS DE OLIVEIRA, José Camilo Zito dos Santos Filho, Alexandre Cardoso, O povo se decepcionou com todos aqui citados. Nota dez para o Senador Paulo Paim e para os Deputados, que nos defende a favor dos aposentados, a Dilma só tem até a Eleição para liberar a revisão dos aposentados, que se aposentou em setembro de 1996 não é possível continuar com esse salário de fome, está impossível de se pagar as nossas contas em dia. Em nome do povo quero deixar aqui o meu desabafo contra esse governo incapaz. Do poeta aposentado e político defensor dos trabalhadores e aposentados, Paulo de Andrade

  • It is idiotic to read “alive and relevant” to mean that he is pulling all the strings. Your sarcasm neither entertains nor bolsters your argument.

  • Thanks for staying on topic and avoiding personal attacks.

  • Moses,
    Neo-liberal capitalist economies do not do well in underdeveloped countries such as comprises Latin America and the Caribbean and as history as shown.
    They have been maintained only because of U.S. pressures, coups and subversion of democratically elected governments (as listed at “Killing Hope ” .)
    Now that the U.S . is being forced out of the region and cannot intervene as it always has, many countries are now free to utilize the economy THEY themselves choose and they are going left .
    No one should make the mistake of thinking that Venezuela or any other country is converting to a socialist economy . They are undertaking social programs that ameliorate/soften some of the failings of the capitalist economies they are keeping much as the advanced social democracies of Europe do.
    Yeah, yeah, Moses , Fidel Castro is really pulling all the strings in the Cuban government and society……… between running marathons.

  • Ha, Ha ! Moses you are such a phony!

    Long Live El Comandante!

  • It’s interesting to see how both Fidel and certain left-leaning Latin-American presidents use these photo-ops for their advantage. This photo of Rousseff with Fidel will circulate in Brazil to help bolster Rousseff’s progressive credentials with the extreme wing of her base. Meanwhile, it gives her space to more aggressively pursue right wing monetary policies to help control inflation and slow the falling value in Brazil’s currency. The same strategy applies to Cristina Fernandez in Argentina. As a practical matter, nothing either leader is doing in their respective countries to increase production and exports is out of the “How to destroy your economy” Castro playbook. Only Venezuela’s Maduro is committed to the ‘Cuban-ization’ of his economy. For Fidel’s part, these photos prove he is still alive and that his opinions are relevant.

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