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Diplomats
get gift-giving warning
Published December 14, 2003
in The
Sun Sentinel, Florida.
HAVANA · In Havana, they're decking
the halls with tinsel and garlands. Mini-Christmas
trees and twinkling ornaments are flying
off the shelves at government run stores.
But in a move reminiscent of Ebenezer Scrooge,
Cuba's Foreign Ministry has told some European
diplomats there's no need for gift-giving
this year. Looks like lumps of coal all
around.
The most recent rebuke is yet another sign
of how badly deteriorated relations between
the island and the EU, Cuba's top trading
partner, have become. In diplomatic circles
it's widely known as the "cocktail
war,'' where some European diplomats are
routinely frozen out of official Cuban functions.
"They communicated to us that given
the circumstances we should abstain from
sending Christmas gifts to Cuban officials,"
a European diplomat said.
"Anything we send will be returned,"
a diplomat from another embassy added.
Havana and Brussels have eyed each other
suspiciously since June, when the EU decided
to downgrade relations with Cuba in response
to a crackdown on 75 peaceful dissidents
and the April executions of three ferry
hijackers.
The EU's measures include limiting high-level
diplomatic visits to Cuba and reducing participation
in cultural events. But the biggest sting
came from the Europeans' decision to show
their support for Cuba's dissidents by inviting
them to their national day celebrations
in Havana.
To Cuba's leaders, who once considered
the EU's policy of engagement an important
counterweight to Washington's isolation,
the move smacked of betrayal and provocation.
A present "is a symbol of respect
and friendship. Things between some European
ambassadors, their governments and us here
in Havana are not conducive to gift giving,"
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque
said last week. "It's a moment of tension,
of irritation. We are offended by some of
the European ambassadors here in Havana."
The "cocktail war" has simmered
since summer.
Some European diplomats have not been invited
to Cuban ministries, official events, parties
and in some cases asked not to attend functions
in which visiting delegations from their
countries were present.
In June, the Cuban government organized
a massive march in front of the embassies
of Spain and Italy, two countries seen as
having spearheaded the measures against
Havana -- but who are also among the island's
most important investors.
In his traditional July 26 speech commemorating
the 50th anniversary of a rebel attack,
President Fidel Castro lambasted the EU
and vowed to reject any future European
aid declaring, "Cuba does not need
the European Union to survive."
The diplomatic scuffle is a tempest in
a teacup, said Joaquin Roy, director of
the European Union Center at the University
of Miami. But for the Cuban government it
plays to a sense of nationalism and "reinforces
... that a small, harassed country is not
only standing up to the United States but
is facing the whole European Union,"
Roy added.
Last month, diplomats from Italy, which
currently presides over the 15-member commission,
complained to the Cuban Foreign Ministry
that the freeze out was making it impossible
to maintain normal diplomatic relations
with Havana.
Cuban officials rejected the argument.
"They said we were the ones who were
not complying with the [Vienna] convention
by interfering with internal affairs,"
one of the European diplomats said.
While business relations and commercial
ties between Cuba and European companies
remain largely untouched, diplomats here
say their work has become more difficult.
"Before, if we had development projects
we would take them to the Ministry of Foreign
Investment," one of the diplomats said.
"Now we have to find a third party
or international nongovernmental organization."
They say they are meeting with dissidents
in an effort to reach out to all sectors
of society and plan to continue to extend
invitations to Cuban government officials.
"From our point of view we maintain
full commitment to constructive engagement,
we're not cutting off any invitations, any
funding any programs," the diplomat
added. "If there's any stalling in
the relationship its because the Cubans
don't want to accept our aid."
Copyright © 2003, South
Florida Sun-Sentinel
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