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Rousseff arrives in Cuba for CELAC meet
January 27, 2014, 11:55 am

Cuba will host the entire continent of the Americas, except the US and Canada who have not been invited, at the 2nd Summit of the Latin American and Caribbean Community of States (CELAC) to be held on January 28-29 [Image Courtesy: CELAC]

Cuba will host the entire continent of the Americas, except the US and Canada who have not been invited, at the 2nd Summit of the Latin American and Caribbean Community of States (CELAC) to be held on January 28-29 [Image Courtesy: CELAC]

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff arrived in Havana on Sunday joining other Latin American and Caribbean leaders to attend a two-day summit.

Cuba will host the entire continent of the Americas, except the US and Canada who have not been invited, at the 2nd Summit of the Latin American and Caribbean Community of States (CELAC) to be held on January 28-29.

Rousseff has confirmed that she will be meeting her Cuban counterpart Raul Castro on bilateral ties.

Rousseff will also attend the inauguration of a $900 million port project, Cuba’s first 700-meter quay, which was financed by Brazil’s BNDES development bank and built by Brazilian firm Odebrecht.

Bolivian President Evo Morales, Haitian President Michel Joseph Martelly, and Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have reached Havana for the meet.

This year’s summit is on the theme of “The Fight Against Poverty, Hunger And Inequality”.

Cuba will hand over presidency of CELAC at the summit to Costa Rica.

The CELAC, a bloc of 33 countries is home to roughly 600 million people.

CELAC was founded in 2010, a historic moment for Latin America, at the Rio Group-Caribbean Community Unity Summit held in Mexico.

The bloc, the result of a decade-long push for deeper integration within the Americas, seeks to deepen political, economic, social and cultural integration in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez was the main proponent of CELAC and while hosting the summit in 2011 had said the bloc had to prioritize “unity unity unity”.

 

TBP and Agencies