JCP vice chair holds talks with PCC political bureau member

Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Vice Chair Ueda Koichiro held talks with Jose Ramon Baraguer Cabrera, Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee Political Bureau member and International Relations Department chief on October 2 at the PCC Central Committee in Havana.

In the talks, Ueda asked Baraguer how the Cuban people and the PCC have overcome the crisis caused in the 1990s in the aftermath of the collapse of the former Soviet Union and under the tightened U.S. embargo against Cuba, and how the country has been able to keep its medical, educational, and welfare standards higher than the rest of Latin American and Caribbean nations.

After relating an outline of the Cuban people's historical struggle against U.S. domination, intervention, and aggression, PCC Baraguer explained that based on consultation and agreement with the Cuban public, the PCC has promoted various economic reforms. He stressed that the Cuban people's united struggle not only forced the U.S. plot to suppress the Cuban revolution to fail, but also deepened the Cuban revolution. The U.S. government, however, is still putting pressures on other Latin American nations to isolate Cuba, Baraguer pointed out.

Ueda expressed hope for the success of the Cuban efforts to get the U.S. government to lift this economic sanctions against Cuba.

After having a welcome lunch hosted by Baraguer, the JCP delegation visited a medical college where students from the U.S. and Africa are studying, and then met with Pedro Ross, secretary general of the Central Organization of the Cuban Trade Union (CTC). (end)