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'Viva Felipe!': Communist-run Cuba Welcomes Spanish King

Reuters

   HAVANA - With cries of "Viva Felipe!" and "Viva Espana!" Cubans greeted
   King Felipe in Old Havana, the first state visit ever by a Spanish
   monarch to Cuba, Spain's former colony turned Communist-run nation.

   Earlier in the day, Felipe and his wife Letizia laid flowers at the
   monument in Havana to Jose Marti, a symbol of Cuba's struggle for
   independence from Spain, before meeting with President Miguel
   Diaz-Canel in the Palace of the Revolution.

   The king then held closed-door conversations with Diaz-Canel during
   which they agreed to further develop positive bilateral political and
   economic relations, according to Cuban state-run media. Spain is Cuba's
   third-largest trading partner and one of its top investors.

   The visit illustrates the normalization of Europe's relations with Cuba
   even as the United States doubles down on a decades-old policy of
   seeking to force the government to reform by tightening its crippling
   trade embargo.

   Some Spanish politicians and Cuban dissidents have criticized the trip,
   saying it legitimizes Cuba's one-party system at a time of increased
   repression.

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