Cuba's President Fidel Castro (right) gestures as Panama's President Martin Torrijos looks on at the Revolution Palace in Havana on Wednesday. Torrijos was on an official one-day state visit. - REUTERS
HAVANA (AP):
FIDEL CASTRO fondly told President Martin Torrijos of Panama yesterday that he hoped they could share the same good relations their countries did during the 1968-81 rule of Torrijos' late father, populist military strongman General Omar Torrijos.
Torrijos travelled to Cuba on Wednesday with 74 disadvantaged Panamanians who will undergo free eye surgery, courtesy of the communist-run government.
FRIENDLY GESTURE
When Torrijos returned to Panama early yesterday, Castro made the unusually friendly gesture of accompanying him to the airport, something he does only occasionally for his closest allies.
"I am reminded of your father, when he visited," Castro told the younger Torrijos, the online edition of the Communist Party daily Granma reported. Castro said father and son shared "the same spirit."
"We enter a new era of cooperation and solidarity with Cuba," Torrijos told state-run news media before boarding his flight. "We leave with a suitcase full of ideas and hope."
DIPLOMATIC TIES
The visit was the latest sign of warming relations between the two countries after a recent restoration of diplomatic ties. Relations were broken last year when the previous Panamanian president pardoned four Cuban exiles accused of trying to assassinate Castro.
The Panamanian eye patients, who include 20 Indians, will receive surgery for cataracts and other visual impairments. Castro's government has been offering free eye operations for disadvantaged people in Latin America and the Caribbean.
