2005-11-16,+Summit+backs+Cuba+against+US,+The+Scotsman


 * The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 14th October, 2005, 7:51am (UK)**

= Summit backs Cuba against US =

Foreign ministers from Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries have expressed support for Cuba in its battles against the US.

"We ask the US government to fulfil 13 successive resolutions approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations to put an end to the financial, commercial and economic blockade which it maintains against Cuba," the ministers said in a statement.

"We reaffirm once more in defence of the free exchange and transparent practice of international trade, that unilateral coercive measures which affect the welfare of people and obstruct integration processes are unacceptable," the ministers said.

The US embargo against Cuba, which aims to squeeze the island's economy and push out Cuban President Fidel Castro, is now in its fifth decade. Cuba claims the embargo has cost it 82 billion dollars.

The foreign ministers' statement was made at a meeting a day before the start of the 15th Iberoamerican Summit, to be attended by about 20 heads of government in the central Spanish city of Salamanca.

Castro, 79, had been due to attend the summit, but Spanish officials said late on Thursday that the Cuban government had informed them he would not be coming. No reason for the decision was given.

Castro's presence would have been likely to provoke protests by Cuban dissidents and human rights groups. In addition, organisers feared a meeting between Castro and Venezuela leader Hugo Chavez would have diverted media attention from what they hope will be a serious summit.

Separately, in a statement condemning terrorism, the foreign ministers said they "backed moves to obtain the extradition and bring to justice the person responsible for the terrorist attack on a Cubana Aviation plane in October 1976, which caused the death of 73 innocent civilians."

Luis Posada Carriles, a vehement anti-Castro Cuban militant, is wanted by a court in Venezuela. A naturalised Venezuelan and one-time CIA operative, Posada is accused of masterminding from Caracas a bombing in which a Cubana Airlines plane travelling from Barbados to Havana exploded in the air on October 6, 1976. He has denied involvement.

A Venezuelan military court tried and acquitted him of the bombing, but the decision was later overturned and a civilian court case convened. Posada then escaped from a Venezuelan jail in 1985 before the civilian trial was completed and is now in a US detention centre in El Paso, Texas, after allegedly crossing into the US illegally from Mexico in March.

© Copyright Press Association Ltd 2005, All Rights Reserved.

From: http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2086782005