Cuba Wins OK for Anti-Terror Statement

Friday November 19, 2004 5:01 PM


AP Photo SJOA101

By JOHN RICE

Associated Press Writer

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) - Cuba has won approval for a draft resolution at the 21-nation Ibero-American Summit condemning a Panamanian pardon for four men accused of trying to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro at a meeting four years ago.

Foreign ministers or ranking diplomats from Spain, Portugal and 19 Latin American nations spent Thursday polishing a declaration for their leaders to endorse when the summit itself gets under way late Friday.

Most of the declaration is a non-controversial call for greater funding and emphasis on education throughout the region. It says that multilateral lending organizations should let poor countries pay off part of their debts by expanding spending on education.

The biggest sticking point came over a Cuban call to criticize former Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso for the pardon in August of four Cuban exiles who had been accused of plotting to kill Castro at the 2000 Ibero-American Summit in Panama. It also criticized the United States for taking in three of the men.

more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4625723,00.html

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/aplatin_story.asp?category=1102&slug=Ibero%20American%20Summit

From the article:

The biggest sticking point came over a Cuban call to criticize former Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso for the pardon in August of four Cuban exiles who had been accused of plotting to kill Castro at the 2000 Ibero-American Summit in Panama. It also criticized the United States for taking in three of the men.

The measure was approved unanimously, but only after extensive editing of the harsh original language, said Costa Rican Foreign Minister Roberto Tovar, the meeting's host and spokesman.

"I would say it's more a matter of wording than of meaning," he said.

Tovar said the text presented to the presidents Friday calls the pardons incompatible with the fight against terrorism.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque called it "an important result" and said "Cuba feels satisfied."

Even many of Castro's critics in the region expressed outrage at Moscoso's pardon, just six days before her term ended, of the group led by former CIA operative Luis Posada. It led Cuba to break relations with Panama.
(snip/...)

It was publicized in Miami that as soon as she pardoned them, she phoned a Miami "exile" friend with the news of what she had done, with the info. that they were on their way home.

Great celibration and merriment all around among them. This is loathesome.