Brazil offers food, road credits to Cuba

Brazil offers food, road credits to Cuba
January 16, 2008

HAVANA TIJUANA, MEXICO - Brazil's president offered Cuba credits for
food, drugs, roads and hotel repairs on Tuesday, and signed a deal for
his country's state oil company to drill for oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

The accords signed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva could be a
major step in strengthening ties between Latin America's largest economy
and the provisional government of Raul Castro, despite Washington's
nearly 50-year-old trade embargo against the island.

Foreign Ministry officials in Brasilia suggested that food credits would
total $100 million, although the agreements did not specify how much
financing Brazil will provide.

Silva described ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro as his friend and met
with him, according to a Silva spokesman. Castro, 81, has not been seen
in public since emergency intestinal surgery forced him to cede power to
his younger brother Raul in July 2006.

"Lula decided this is not going to be a farewell visit to Fidel. It's a
vote of confidence to Raul," said Phil Peters, a Cuba analyst with the
Lexington Institute, a think tank near Washington, D.C. "Brazil is going
out of its way not just to make a visit that conveys political support,
but to put substantial economic resources on the table."

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-flahemidig01160sbjan16,0,5539702.story