Politique
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Visiting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had a five-hour meeting Saturday with Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro.
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The newly-elected Venezuelan president, who arrived here late Friday for a high-level meeting on bilateral cooperation, told reporters he talked with 86-year-old Castro for five hours, mainly recollecting friendship between Castro and recently-deceased Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.
"It is a relationship of brothers, of a family in Latin America and the Caribbean," Maduro said.
They also talked about history, he added.
During Maduro's visit in Cuba, the two countries signed new cooperation deals worth 1.6 billion U.S. dollars, covering programs in healthcare, energy, economy, education, sports and culture.
Maduro, 51, won the presidential vote on April 14 with a narrow margin against his opponent Henrique Capriles. He was Venezuela's acting president after Chavez died.
During the election campaign he pledged to boost the relations with Cuba as part of his promised efforts to maintain the continuity of policies under Chavez.
Venezuela provides 60 percent of Cuba's oil needs and Cuba, with a comparative strength in medical care, returns the favor by sending some 45,000 professionals, mainly health workers, to work in Venezuela.
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