While attending the Progressive Governance Summit of leaders from Latin America, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said the White House does not plan to lift its embargo on Cuba.

He added that a “transition” fase in Cuba-U.S. relations was called for. However, Biden said, he and the president believe Cubans should be allowed to “live in freedom” not oppression, and that the “Cuban people should determine their own fate.”

Biden and Obama break with Latin America’s most important leaders. Five of them visited Cuba in the last few years. They respect Fidel and his brother Raul tremendously. Especially Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez considers the Castros “Latin American heroes.”

Chavez doesn’t stand alone, however. Leftist or left-leaning governments have been elected to power in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Honduras and Uruguay in recent years. Most if not all of them have called on the U.S. to scrap its embargo and to include Cuba in international trade. (more…)