U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker will travel to Cuba with business persons from her country, as part of the delegation accompanying President Barack Obama during his visit to the island on March 20-22.

A communique issued by the Ministry of Commerce of the United States confirmed that Pritzker will come to Cuba with a group of business persons, like Arne Sorenson, executive president of the Marriott International hotel chain, as well as Ursula Burns, executive president of Xerox.

Over 50 major representatives of the US publishing industry, authors and agents, petitioned the White House and Congress to end what they termed the Cuba Book Embargo, referring to the US blockade´s restrictions to send books and educational materials to the island.

According to National Public Radio (NPR), the calls explains that "the book embargo counters to American ideals of free expression and that books are catalysts for greater cross-cultural understanding, economic development, free expression and positive social change."

Cuban and Venezuelan people paid homage on Friday in Havana to Commander Hugo Chavez "the best friend the Cuban people has ever had" as defined by Fidel Castro, on the occasion of the 3rd anniversary of his death on March 5th.