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| | John Paul II and Cuba by Tad Szulc, AMERICA Dec. 11, 1999 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07) |
 | | The events last month, when the visiting king of Spain, the presidents of Portugal, Brazil and Panama, and a half-dozen Latin American foreign ministers met with the dissidents in an unprecedented fashion, demonstrated how Castro as well as the Clinton administration had underestimated the pope's long-range political vision and his keen sense of diplomacy. |
 | | This year's Havana summit, however, was intended to glorify and truly legitimize the Castro oeuvre in the eyes of the world, what with the attendance by most Latin American presidents, the king and the queen of Spain (who had never before set foot in Fidelista Cuba) and the president of Portugal. |
 | | The church's growing political standing in Cuba was further recognized when King Juan Carlos, his prime minister, José María Aznar, Portugal's president, Jorge Sampaio, and Brazil's president, Fernando Enrique Cardoso, held separate meetings with Cardinal Ortega to review the situation. |
| www.americamagazine.org /articles/szulccuba.htm (1888 words) |
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