Lula To Visit Cuba, Wants To Meet With Fidel

Brazilian President Lula will be visiting Cuba next week and hopes to meet with his good friend Fidel. Fidel and Lula are old friends. It is not mentioned in the articles, but I am pretty sure while Lula was exiled from Brasil he spent time in Cuba. Many in Lula's inner circle surely did. His former Chief of Staff, who resigned in one of the many scandals here, Jose Dirceu, "trained" as a "revolutionary" during the late 60's and early 70's. There is no denying Lula is leftist. But to his credit, he did not take Brasil on a sharp left turn as many expected. Before Morales and Chavez and Bachilet, there was Lula. When he took office many feared the worst. Now, perhaps because of his election, and the fact that he wasn't as bad as many thought, fears eased up a bit and that led to the elections in other countries. The Brasilian economy is strong, stronger than it has been in recent memory anyways, and the business sector has not had its worst fears realized. Lula however, is red as red can be, and his friendship with Fidel is all I need to know about him. A few years back there was even a scandal that Cuba donated dollars to Lula's re-election campaign and his party, the PT, Partido Trabalhadores, the Workers party. (There are hundreds of political parites here, an alphabet soup, all known by initials). Anyways, Lula is visiting Cuba and wants to meet with his old buddy Fidel. Anyones guess if this actually happens. Lula has "bought" into the Fidel myth and doesn't realize Fidel has no friends. There was even a huge split in his party because Lula refused to denounce Human Rights abuses in Cuba. The purpose of the visit is to say goodbye to friend before he dies, I mean make some business deals. More here and here.