Cuban President Fidel Castro, desperate for oil to replace sagging Soviet supplies, has flown to this Mexican resort for a surprise visit with the leaders of Latin America's main crude producers.
Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela hope to avoid "a bloodbath in Cuba" and are trying to persuade Castro to speed up reform in his holdout Communist nation, said Colombia's foreign minister, Luis Fernando Jaramillo."We will make every effort so that the mediation of these three countries can produce fundamental changes on the island," he was quoted by his country's Caracol radio network as saying.
Castro arrived Tuesday night shortly after it was announced that he would be joining the so-called Group of Three summit.
He dined with Presidents Carlos Salinas de Gortari of Mexico and Cesar Gaviria of Colombia. Venezuela's Carlos Andres Perez was due Wednesday morning.
Gaviria said the recent military coup in Haiti and Cuba's problems would be high on the agenda.
Castro refused to say if his country would formally seek a return to the San Jose Pact, under which Mexico and Venezuela supply oil to Central American countries at cut rates.
Cuba was dropped several years ago due to payment problems.
"It's very early to speak of support," Castro told reporters after the dinner meeting. He said he was seeking "the friendship" of other Latin American countries.
Mexican officials so far have refused to offer an oil deal to Cuba, saying it should pay full price.
The collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe has devastated Cuba's economy and drastically cut Soviet fuel supplies, forcing Cubans to switch from cars to bicycles and from fertilizer to manure.
Havana is also seeking to expand foreign ties, especially with its Latin neighbors. Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia have maintained links with Cuba, despite irritation to the United States.