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March 20, 2009

El Salvador, Costa Rica Renew Cuba Ties
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El Salvador’s new president-elect is vowing to restore diplomatic ties
with Cuba. Mauricio Funes says he will reverse a policy that has not
recognized Cuba since the 1959 Cuban Revolution.

El Salvadorian President-elect Mauricio Funes: “I said during my speech
announcing running for the presidency, I would reopen diplomatic
relations with Cuba, because, up to this date, we would be the only
Latin American country who does not have diplomatic relations with Cuba,
and that’s what I plan on doing.”

Funes’s FMLN party won El Salvador’s election on Sunday, ending twenty
years of governance by the US-backed, right-wing ARENA party. His
announcement comes as Costa Rica also reopened diplomatic ties with Cuba
after nearly fifty years.