Meanwhile, the Cuban government has renewed calls for the closure of the US prison at Guantanamo Bay. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque made the appeal on a visit to Spain. Roque says in addition to human rights concerns, the Guantanamo prison is a major barrier to Cuba’s economic growth by choking off one of its main ports. Roque also criticized the bailout of Wall Street and said Cuba is trying to pursue an independent path.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque: “We don’t intend to desert or abandon our road towards the construction of a socialist society, just, inclusive, all the time more and more democratic and more open, with more opportunities all the time. In this road, we have to know what not to copy. For example, we shouldn’t copy this model of speculative capitalism and financial. God forbid we do in Cuba the system dictated by Wall Street. We don’t want to imitate that.”