UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Makes First-Ever Visit to Cuba

By: - January 28th, 2014

Above: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (centre) at Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport (UN Photo/Mark Garten)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is currently visiting Cuba this week for the second summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.

Ban, who met with Fidel Castro, Cuban President Raul Castro and a number of CELAC delegations, delivered what his office called a “wide-ranging” address.

The Secretary General held talks with Esteban Lazo, president of Cuba’s National Assembly, Miguel Diaz-Canel, first vice president of Cuba’s Councils of State and Ministers and with Marino Murillo, vice president of Cuba’s council of Ministers and chairman of the country’s Permanent Commission for Implementation and Development of the Economic and Social Policy Guidelines.

He also met with Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz, Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment on topics including Cuba’s new deepwater port of Mariel and the UN Development Assistance Framework.

Ban also visited Old Havana on Monday, stopping for a haircut at Solon Correo.

He departed Cuba on Tuesday evening for a trip to Germany.

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