Church talks help make Cuba ‘perfect place’ for negotiations

HAVANA — The heads of the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches will hold a historic meeting Friday in the threadbare international airport of an officially secular, communist-run tropical island.

In addition to the meeting of the church leaders, Cuban President Raul Castro is expected to welcome President Obama to Havana as early as this spring to celebrate the detente the two men declared at the end of 2014, ending a half-century of hostility.

[...] four years of talks in Cuba between Colombia’s government and its main rebel group appear set to produce an accord ending the Western Hemisphere’s longest-running conflict, perhaps as early as mid-year.

If all goes as planned, 2016 could cement Castro’s construction of a foreign policy legacy markedly different from that of his brother Fidel, who oversaw five decades of tension with the United States, dispatching Cuban troops and advisers to Africa, Asia and Central and South America, and offering safe haven to anti-Western fighters from conflicts around the world.