• Submitted by: manso
• Personalities
• 08 / 06 / 2010

---

Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega will travel to Washington to receive an award -- and possibly talk with U.S. officials.

Related Content Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega is making a second visit to Washington, this time to accept an award and give a speech at the annual conference of the Knights of Columbus.

But Ortega, who engaged in unprecedented talks with Cuban leader Raúl Castro, also is trying to meet with U.S. government officials and trade and business groups based in the capital, Cuba analysts said.

During Ortega's previous visit to Washington, he informed U.S. officials about the status of the talks that led to a promise to free 52 political prisoners.

A Knights of Columbus statement said the Catholic organization would award Ortega its highest award, the Gaudium et Spes Award, during a dinner Tuesday. The Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus runs from Tuesday to Thursday.

Cuba analysts, who asked for anonymity because they received the information in confidence, said they were told Ortega would be in Washington Monday through Wednesday and has been trying to arrange meetings with officials at the State Department and the White House's National Security Council.

He also has been trying to arrange meetings with major trade and business groups based in the Washington area, the analysts added.

``He's definitely trying to make the rounds, trying to make the best of his time here,'' one analyst said.

Ortega last visited Washington June 22, just days before he announced that the Cuban government had agreed to free political prisoners jailed since 2003.

Officials in Washington last month confirmed to El Nuevo Herald that Ortega had met with Arturo Valenzuela, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs, and Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs committee.

Berman, who like Valenzuela has not confirmed the meeting, has endorsed a bill before Congress that would lift the ban on U.S. tourism travel to Cuba and ease restrictions on U.S. food sales to the island.

On July 7, Ortega announced that President Raul Castro had agreed to free 52 political prisoners over the next three to four months.

Twenty have already been freed and left Cuba for Spain, along with more than 100 relatives.

By JUAN O. TAMAYO


Source. Miami Herald