By Adalid Cabrera Lemuz, Associated Press Writer. Yahoo!
September 4, 2001
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) - Fidel Castro made a surprise visit to the capital on
Monday, stopping to discuss proposed cooperation agreements between Brazil and
Cuba on his way home from a racism conference in South Africa.
The Cuban president arrived at 1:30 a.m. local time at the Air Force Base in
Brasilia, where he was met by officials from the Brazilian (news - web sites)
foreign ministry and the Cuban embassy.
Castro also stopped over in Rio de Janeiro last week en route to Africa.
Although Brazil has a center-right government, the two nations maintain warm
relations.
Wearing a dark business suit instead of his traditional olive-green military
fatigues Monday, he went straight to the Naoum Plaza Hotel in downtown Brasilia
and checked into the $1,500-a-night presidential suite.
Castro met with President Fernando Henrique Cardoso's secretary general,
Aloysio Nunes Ferreira, to discuss cooperation agreements in education, health,
science and fighting poverty.
The Cuban leader was especially interested in a Brazilian program that pays
poor families to keep their kids in school, Nunes Ferreira said. Castro also
praised a Brazilian program that distributes anti-AIDS drugs free to anyone
needing them. | 
