Luiz Incio Lula da Silva to meet Fidel Castro in Cuba

Brazilian President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva will meet with Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Wednesday for a meeting of “friends” during which they will discuss aspects of international politics, Lula’s spokesman Marcelo Baumbach said Friday.

Da Silva will arrive in Havana on Tuesday evening, coming from Cancun, Mexico, where he will attend the Rio Group Summit.

Castro and Lula da Silva are friends since the early 1980s, when the Brazilian former union leader founded the Workers’ Party (PT), through which he became Brazil’s president since 2003.

“The meeting that President Lula will have with President Fidel Castro is a visit of a friend to another, during which they will discuss current issues concerning international politics,” the spokesman said.

After this meeting, Lula will be present at the closure of the Working Group Brazil-Cuba on Trade and Economic Affairs, and in the evening he will have dinner with Cuban President Ral Castro.

Lula’s visit to Cuba next week will conclude the cycle of visits that he paid to the Caribbean country during his two terms as president.