President Raúl Castro, who took over from his brother last year, is the only area leader excluded from the summit. However, he is expected to attend a two-day conference in Venezuela with some of the area’s most radical heads of state before they travel on to Trinidad and Tobago without him.Mr Obama has said he wants dialogue and improved relations with Cuba, but that the embargo should be maintained until the Cuban government shows progress on democracy and human rights.Fidel Castro said he did not blame Mr Obama for past US policy towards Cuba, but added: “The conditions are created for Obama to use his talent in a constructive policy that puts an end to what has failed for the past half century.”He pointed out that Raúl Castro had expressed willingness to hold US talks on the basis of equality and without preconditions.
●Bolivia’s Congress approved a controversial electoral law on Tuesday after Evo Morales, the leftwing president, went on hunger strike for nearly five days to protest against opposition lawmakers blocking the bill, Reuters reports from La Paz.
The law sets presidential and congressional elections for December 6, assigns a small number of congressional seats to poor, indigenous areas where Mr Morales is popular and allows Bolivian expatriates to vote for the first time.Opposition leaders had claimed the bill would give the government an unfair electoral advantage. Recent polls suggest that Mr Morales, the country’s first Indian president and a fierce critic of Washington, is likely to win re-election.
By Marc Frank in Havana
As in the days of Noah...