Evo Morales Opens Visit to Cuba
Havana, Dec 30, 2005. (Prensa Latina) Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales, heading a wide high level delegation, opened a friendly tour of Cuba on Friday, when he was received by President Fidel Castro and several top government officials.
I am expressing my great satisfaction, emotion and friendship at being here with the Commander, Morales told reporters.
The Movement to Socialism (MAS) leader, who will be inaugurated next December 22, said "a new history has just started in Bolivia to seek equality, justice, equity and peace with social justice."
Morales won the presidential elections on December 18, with 54 percent of the votes, a figure no other candidate has reached during the last 30 years.
Welcoming the Bolivian president elect, Fidel Castro asserted the map had begun to change and people should be well aware of that.
The Cuban president noted the world was moved by Morales´ election, as this is the first time an indigenous people is elected president in Bolivia, which was something highly remarkable.
Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage, National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon, Foreign Affairs Minister Felipe Perez Roque, as well as high ranking officials, received the MAS leader.
A wide representation of the 2,800 Bolivian youth studying in Cuba was also present.
According to a communiqué, "Morales´ friendly visit conforms to the historic and profound relations of sisterhood and solidarity between the Cuban and Bolivian people."
"Both nations are willing to fortify a true Latin American integration based on solidarity and humanism, to ensure a real growth and wellbeing for all Latin America," it added.
Morales and his accompanying delegation are slated to meet with Fidel Castro and other officials of the Cuban government.