Cuban President Raul Castro headed the official welcoming ceremony for Ugandan president and dictator,  General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. During the ceremony held at the Revolution Palace in the Cuban capital, Raul and the Uganda warlord greeted their respective delegations and later held official talks.

Also present in the dialogue was Esteban Lazo Hernandez, VP of the Cuban Council of State and member of the Politburo of Cuba’s Communist Party.

Earlier, Museveni, who arrived on Monday in Havana for an official visit at the invitation of Raul Castro, laid a floral wreath before the statue of Cuban National Hero Jose Marti at Revolution Square.

This is the Ugandan dictator’s second trip to Cuba. He visited the Caribbean island nation in 1988, when he received the ‘Playa Giron’ (Bay of Pigs) Order. From Cuba, Museveni planned to fly to Washington DC by Wednesday, to hung around and plead with the USA White House for a chance to meet President Obama. Museveni is under pressure from his wife, Janet Kataha, to secure a meeting with Obama so that she can get a chance to meet the American president. According to sources in the Uganda foreign ministry, if Obama refuses to see him, Museveni is likely to stay as late as Saturday morning  before giving up.

Cuba and Uganda established diplomatic relations on May 9, 1974. Since the beginning of Cuba’s medical cooperation in Uganda in 1980, 179 Cuban health professionals have offered their services in that country. At present, a group of voluntary workers serve as professors at the Mbarara and Kyambogo universities.

A total of 131 professionals from Uganda have been trained in Cuba, and another 50, mostly from western Uganda, are now studying in the island nation.