|
Cuba Regards Ibero-American
Summit as Victory Over US
By Patrick Goodenough.
Town
Hall, DC, Oct 17, 2005.
(CNSNews.com) - In what Cuban media are
describing as a "defeat" for the
United States, leaders from Latin America,
Spain and Portugal ended a summit at the
weekend calling for an end to the U.S. embargo
against Fidel Castro's Cuba.
They also said the U.S. should hand over
for trial a suspect in the bombing of a
Cuban airliner in 1976, a reference to the
ongoing legal wrangle over Luis Posada Carriles,
an anti-Castro ?gr?n custody in the U.S.
Representatives of 22 countries meeting
in the central Spanish city of Salamanca
put their names to the resolutions despite
expressions of concern by the U.S. Embassy
in Madrid, where a spokesman said earlier
"it would be unfortunate if these texts
were interpreted as a sign of support for
the Castro dictatorship."
The president of the European Union's executive
Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, said during
a press conference in Spain that he hoped
the embargo resolution was "not interpreted
as a sign of tolerance of violation of human
rights in Cuba."
Relations between Cuba and the E.U. have
been strained since 2003 over human rights
abuses by Havana, and the E.U. last April
for the first time co-sponsored a U.S.-initiated
resolution critical of Cuba at the U.N.
Commission on Human Rights.
The Ibero-American summit's final statement
called on the U.S. government "to put
an end to the economic, commercial and financial
blockade that it maintains against Cuba."
It also referred to 13 resolutions by the
U.N. General Assembly demanding an end to
the embargo, the most recent of which was
taken in 2004. A fourteenth resolution is
expected shortly.
Cuba says the embargo, first imposed in
1962, cost the country $2.7 billion last
year.
The use by summit participants of the politically
charged word "blockade" favored
by Cuba -- rather than "embargo"
as used at past meetings -- was, in itself,
seen as a blow to the U.S.
Havana's Prensa Latina news agency called
it "not merely a semantic change, but
a profound one," and said the move
was interpreted as "an important success
for Cuba and a thorough defeat for the United
States."
It also said the summit was a watershed
in attempts to strengthen the Ibero-American
grouping, with a "common desire to
strengthen multilateralism from a unity
perspective, relations between countries,
and the rejection of coercive and unilateral
measures."
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque
also hailed what he called a diplomatic
victory for his country.
Roque represented Cuba at the summit after
Havana announced at the last minute that
Castro would not be able to attend.
The official reason was Castro's need to
oversee relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane
Stan, which caused serious damage and loss
of life in Central America and Mexico.
However, two anti-Castro groups were reportedly
planning to file a legal complaint against
him, just days after Spain's Constitutional
Court ruled that the country's courts could
investigate suspected crimes against humanity
in other countries, whether Spanish citizens
were involved or not.
During the summit, separate pro- and anti-Castro
demonstrations were held in the city.
In Castro's absence, his close ally, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez provided the anti-U.S.
rhetoric in Salamanca.
"[The U.S.], which says it fights
terrorism, which invades countries like
Iraq using the excuse of the war on terror
... protects terrorists on its own territory,"
the leftist leader was quoted as telling
reporters.
The reference was to Posada, whom Cuba
and Venezuela accuse of involvement in terrorist
attacks including the bombing of a Cuban
Airlines flight between Caracas and Havana,
in which 73 people died. The 77-year-old,
a naturalized Venezuelan and former CIA
operative, has denied involved in the attacks.
Venezuela has applied for Posada's extradition
-- Cuba doesn't have an extradition agreement
with the U.S. -- but a U.S. court ruled
last month that he cannot be sent to Venezuela
because of the risk of torture there.
Chavez is an arch-critic of U.S. policies
in Latin America and around the world. Last
week he announced that an evangelical missionary
organization active in Venezuela for 59
years would be expelled, calling Sanford,
Florida-based New Tribes Mission staffers
"agents of imperialist penetration."
Meanwhile, Spain's Socialist Prime Minister
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Mexican
President Vicente Fox both defended their
support for the Cuba resolutions.
Zapatero pointed out that the embargo resolution
was similar to those passed by the U.N.
General Assembly.
Fox said the measure was in line with Mexico's
longstanding policy based on "respect
and justice. Attempts to resolve the dispute
with Cuba by means of an embargo were "out
of touch with reality," he told a press
conference in Salamanca
President Bush will have the opportunity
to meet with many of the leaders who took
part in the Ibero-American meeting when
he attends the Summit of the Americas, hosted
by Argentine President Nestor Kirchner early
next month.
The summit of the 34-member Organization
of American States (OAS), the fourth to
be held since 1994, is due to focus on "Creating
Jobs to Fight Poverty and Strengthen Democratic
Governance."
Cuba is an OAS member but the Castro government
has been excluded from participation since
1962. Venezuela is a member.
|
