HAVANA, (Reuters) – Cuban President Raul Castro challenged Latin American and Caribbean leaders yesterday to improve health care and education, telling a regional summit they have the natural resources to eradicate poverty but may lack the political will.
The speech also listed a series of Latin American grievances that directly or indirectly involve the United States, attempting to unify the 33 countries at the summit against their neighbor to the north, which was not invited. “We have every possibility to abolish illiteracy,” Castro told leaders of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). “We should have the political will to do it.” CELAC excludes the United States and Canada, both members of traditional forums such as the Organization of American States and the Summit of the Americas, groups that tend to be dominated by Washington.
