CUBA-MEXICO/CASTRO Cuba's Raul Castro to make first official visit to Mexico

Record ID: 130717

  • Title: CUBA-MEXICO/CASTRO Cuba's Raul Castro to make first official visit to Mexico
  • Date: 4th November 2015
  • Summary: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (NOVEMBER 3, 2015) (REUTERS) MAN WHO SOLD GRANMA YACHT TO CASTRO, ANTONIO DEL CONDE AKA "EL CUATE", IN HIS HOME DEL CONDE SHOWING A REPLICA OF THE GRANMA YACHT GENERAL VIEW OF DEL CONDE SPEAKING IN INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MAN WHO SOLD GRANMA YACHT TO CASTRO, ANTONIO DEL CONDE, SAYING: "I decided to do for Cuba what I couldn't do for Mexico so I
  • Embargoed: 19th November 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAAPCN8YEVHMARD9PTEHM2N8LGH
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDIT CONTAINS VIDEO THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    Nearly 60 years after setting sail from the Port of Tuxpan to launch the Cuban Revolution alongside his brother, President Raul Castro is set to visit Mexico on Thursday (November 5) for the first time since he took office in 2006.
    The goal of Raul Castro's three-day trip is to meet his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto, but he is likely to visit the quiet port of the Yucatan to recall the early stages of the revolution.
    In November 26, 1956 Fidel Castro and a band of armed comrades sailed off from the Gulf of Mexico in the leaky "Granma" yacht for Cuba to start the revolution that ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista.
    The 82 insurgents, including left-wing icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara, overcame rough seas to land in Cuba a week later and, against the odds, overthrew the Batista government in 1959.
    A museologist of the Cuban Revolution memorial in Havana, Miguel Angel Gafas, recalled the incident that ended with Batista's ousting and said Fidel Castro and his fighters were relentless.
    "The travellers under the command of Fidel, were in Mexico seeking a means of transportation to reach Cuba and fulfil the promise they had made in '56 (1956) to become free or to become martyrs. With the help of a Mexican national named Antonio Conde, they managed to purchase the Granma yacht from a U.S. company, which was a tourism yacht with a 20-passenger capacity and where they carried 82 men, commanded by Fidel. Within the group were - Raul Castro, Juan Almeida and Ernesto Che Guevara," he said.
    The "Granma" yacht was said to have been named after the grandmother of its original owner and the name was subsequently given to Cuba's state-run newspaper.
    The Castros secretly trained rebels for months in the Mexican highlands.
    Footage of Castro's 1959 raid in Sierra Maestra show him criticizing Batista's bloody attack against the revolutionary soldiers.
    "Another time, he says that there is no war in Sierra Maestra but he won't let anyone come here to see the Sierra Maestra. And when the soldiers were killed in an invasion, he says they were killed in an accident," he said.
    One of the key figures during Castro's time in the Yucatan, was Mexican gun dealer Antonio "El Cuate" del Conde who bought the Granma from an American couple, sold it to Castro and loaded it with weapons and fuel.
    In his home, Del Conde still holds onto photos and other memories of his brief relationship with Fidel and Raul Castro ahead of their departure to Cuba.
    Del Conde said he was devoted to the Cuban Revolution and allowed Fidel Castro to pay him years later for the boat or weapons.
    "I decided to do for Cuba what I couldn't do for Mexico so I openly supported the Cuban Revolution and I openly supported him to the degree that he asked me for the boat, I gave it to him, he didn't pay me for it. He said he preferred to owe me money than not to take some cash with him to pay the men who helped him in the Sierra, the peasants. He paid me later. So I devoted myself to the Revolution," he said.
    Del Conde also recalled his crucial assistance to the revolutionary soldiers who departed from the quiet port of Tuxpan in an overcrowded boat, pretending to be his fishing crew.
    "I accommodated 78 people. I don't know how. I gave them directions: don't get up, don't smoke, don't talk because it was a clandestine departure. I had asked permission to go out; the weather was bad and they didn't want to let me go out that night," he said.
    Raul Castro's trip to one of the region's main economic powers is yet another sign of improving relations between Cuba and Mexico, that forgave 70 percent of the Cuban debt of nearly $500 million dollars in 2013.
    In another proof of growing cooperation, Pena Nieto recently appointed one of Mexico's most senior diplomats, Juan Jose Bremer, as ambassador of the socialist island.
    Historically strong relations between Cuba and Mexico soured when Mexico's conservative National Action Party held power from 2000 until 2012.
    The two countries briefly closed their embassies in 2004, but maintained official diplomatic relations.
    Currently, Mexico has more investment projects under negotiation with Cuba than any other Latin American country, according to a Mexican trade official who says his country sees an influential relationship with Cuba as central to improving ties throughout Latin America.
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