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CUBA: MOVE TOWARD A SOUTHERN TRADE BLOC COULD SWEEP CUBA INTO MERCOSUR.

Article Excerpt
While President George W. Bush attempts to increase enforcement of sanctions against Cuba, recent elections elsewhere in the region have brought to power leaders who are moving quickly to reincorporate Cuba into the Latin American community. In the face of a great southern revolt against the US-sponsored Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), neoliberalism, and US interventionism, the Bush administration has clung to its demand for capitalism and US-style electoral democracy in Cuba.

Cuba is the only country excluded from the FTAA because the US has made democracy a condition for participation. However, the trend among Cuba's neighbors is to link free trade with fair trade and not with the Washington version of political and economic correctness.

Argentina restores diplomatic relations with Cuba

After more than two years of tension, Argentina has restored full diplomatic relations with Cuba. Relations soured in 2001 after Argentina voted with the US in the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva to condemn Cuba for its human rights record. President Fidel Castro responded with verbal attacks calling Argentina's foreign minister "a boot licker" for the US (see NotiCen, 2001-05-03).

But recently elected President Nestor Kirchner sent a new ambassador to Havana in October with instructions to patch things up. Ambassador Abraham Teleb said, "We are under a strict directive that Cuban-Argentine relations deepen and bear fruit."

Argentine Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa and his Cuban counterpart Felipe Perez Roque...

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