Zimbabwe's Mugabe arrives in Cuba for anti-imperialist weekend

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe (C),
accompanied by Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez
Roque, reviews the guard of honour upon his arrival
10 September, 2005 at Havana's airport.
AFP PHOTO/Adalberto ROQUE 

Monday, September 12, 2005

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe landed in Havana Saturday for an official three-day visit with President Fidel Castro.

Mugabe arrived at 11:00 am (1500 GMT) with his wife, Grace Mugabe, Foreign Minister Simbarashe Mumbengengwi and other government officials and was received by Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque.

Mugabe and his entourage will meet with Castro and other officials and will visit places of "historical and scientific interest," according to official sources.

The weekend visit to the island will be the African leader's sixth, the most recent having been in 2002.

Castro visited Zimbabwe in 1986, for a meeting of non-aligned nations.

Cuba has educated 3,034 Zimbabwean students, according to Havana's foreign ministry. Four Zimbabwean students are attending Cuba's International School of Physical Education and Sports, and 10 others are studying science at the University of Havana.

Mugabe was received with military honors at Jose Marti airport.

He immediately fulfilled a promise, made by his spokesman in Harare, to use the trip to commiserate with his Cuban colleague about US influence over the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, saying that Zimbabwe would never be a friend of the IMF because it worked on behalf of the powerful and did not give real assistance to the needy.

Mugabe said he and Castro would share ideas on dealing with what he called imperialist policies.

The IMF on Friday postponed for six months the expulsion of Zimbabwe for non-payment of its debt, after the African country paid 120 million dollars.

Both Zimbabwe and Cuba have been dubbed "outposts of tyranny" by US President George W. Bush's administration.

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