|
|
NEWS
US: Spain's move on
more flexible approach to Cuba is wrong
Fri Dec 3, 5:38 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Spain's push for a more flexible EU policy toward
Cuba is "wrong-headed," the top US diplomat for Latin America said.
"Making concessions to a regime of that nature is really a wrong-headed
policy," Roger Noriega said of Cuba, the only one-party communist
country in the Americas.
"Foreign Minister (Felipe) Perez Roque said months ago that 'Spain would
come crawling on its knees to Havana.' I laughed when I read that. And
my guess is that Perez Roque is doing the laughing now," Noriega said.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government has
pushed for a revision of the EU sanctions imposed on Cuba last year,
following the arrest of 75 dissidents arguing that they are ineffective.
Cuba on Thursday released its sixth ailing dissident in a week in what
has been seen as an attempt at rapprochement with Spain and Europe by an
increasingly isolated Cuban President Fidel Castro.
The six were among 75 dissidents jailed in March and April for between
seven and 28 years in the worst crackdown by the Castro regime in years.
In Brussels, Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot, whose country holds the
rotating EU presidency, had said Tuesday that the releases were "very
encouraging."
"I would encourage the Cuban authorities to continue on this road, and
the EU will certainly reflect on this attitude in the light of this
mood," he said.
But Bot added: "We have to see whether Cuba continues with this line or
whether it will just be a temporary release of a few prisoners to make a
gesture of goodwill and then stop. That is not enough for the EU."
News Archive
| Home
|
|
|
