Cuba's move chills relations between the island and one of its main trading partners.
APPROVAL WITHDRAWN:
Jose Coderch.
Cuba's move chills relations between the island and one of its main trading partners.
By JUAN O. TAMAYO
Herald Staff Writer
MADRID -- Capping Spain's worst uproar over Cuba since it lost the colony nearly a century ago, Havana has vetoed a new Spanish ambassador in reprisal for criticism of President Fidel Castro.
The newspaper Granma reported Tuesday that Cuba rejected Jose Coderch because he had told a Madrid newspaper that once he arrived in Havana he would ``throw the embassy doors wide open'' to anti-Castro dissidents.
But the row clearly stemmed from the successful campaign by right-of-center Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar to persuade Europe to aggressively press Castro toward democratic reforms and respect for human rights.
Aznar's initiative has triggered acrid debate at home on Spanish investments in Cuba, exile leader Jorge Mas Canosa's investments in Spain, former Socialist Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez's friendship with Castro and even an egg-throwing melee -- all s plashed across front pages for the past month.
Granma said Coderch's comments to the Madrid newspaper ABC, in which he also said he hoped to help ``push Cuba to freedom,'' were a ``monumental violation of international law and unacceptable meddling in domestic Cuban affairs.''
Coderch, named by Aznar, was to have replaced Ambassador Eudaldo Mirapeix, a Socialist appointee. Cuba initially gave Coderch its approval, but withdrew it Tuesday.
Cuba's move in effect chills relations between the island and one of its main trading partners: an estimated $675 million in exports and imports in 1995 and $120 million to $200 million in Spanish investments in Cuba.
Foreign Minister Abel Matutes said Spain would react with ``coolness and moderation'' to what he called an ``unjustified temper tantrum.''
Aznar and his Popular Party have steadfastly expressed surprise at the brawl over what they paint as a mere attempt to breathe life into European Union policies that already seek reforms in Cuba.
``Cuba for us is not foreign policy. It's a very emotional domestic theme, even when all we're doing is `putting a little music' to the European text,'' said Jose Maria Robles Fraga, the party's foreign policy chief in Parliament.
Critics say Aznar is doing more than that. ``It is a policy of provocation,'' leftist Parliament Deputy Rosa Aguilar said Tuesday.
Aid curbed
Aznar has already halted all nonhumanitarian aid to Cuba, cut 1996 development aid in half -- to $2.5 million -- and raked Castro over the coals of human rights every chance he got, from an Iberoamerican summit in Chile to a food summit in Rome.
But his most significant step came last week, when he proposed to the 15-member European Union a common policy statement aggressively linking future EU relations with Cuba to political reforms.
The statement demands the release of political prisoners and the abolition of political crimes and requires European embassies in Havana to maintain contacts with dissidents and independent groups such as the Catholic Church.
``The European Union's objective in its relations with Cuba is to stimulate the process of transition to democracy. . . . The goal is to help a process of change,'' said a draft of the document obtained by The Herald.
The EU approved the draft Monday, and EU ministers are expected to easily adopt a final version of the policy on Dec. 6, not least because they hope a grateful President Clinton will then again postpone enforcement of a section of the Helms-Burton law that threatens some foreigners doing business in Cuba.
Castro angered
Castro, predictably, was angered by the Aznar initiative and, even before the Coderch veto, had begun to plunge Cuba's relations with Spain to levels even lower than when dictator Francisco Franco ruled Spain.
Castro dismissed Aznar over the weekend as ``a little man'' who has ``less dignity than Franco,'' and charged that he won the elections in March with the help of donations from ``the Miami terrorist Mafia.''
Cuban authorities briefly detained a Spanish university professor delivering aid to a nongovernment organization in Havana last week.
But the most strident reaction has come from within Spain, where many people still have family ties to Cuba and resent the U.S. role in the Spanish-American War of 1898 that freed Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines from colonial rule.
Aznar defends his initiative, saying it injects vigor into what he calls Gonzalez's ``policy of complacency'' toward Cuba during the Socialists' 14 years in power.
``Gonzalez used to give money to the Cuban people and pat Castro on the back. We say we must help the people, but without the pat on the back. . . . We'll slap his face every chance we get,'' Popular Party youth leader Pedro Calvo said.
`Constructive engagement'
Gonzalez, who advocates ``constructive engagement'' with Cuba, replied that Aznar risks being seen in Latin America as an ``arrogant leader who tries to dictate laws'' to former colonies, and as a tool of U.S. policy on Cuba.
``If we all know that pressuring Castro will not be effective, whose interests do we serve but those of Washington and Miami,'' said Luis Yañes, foreign policy chief for the Socialists' Parliament members.
Some 400 radicals kicked and threw eggs at people attending the Nov. 14 launch of the Spanish-Cuban Foundation, created by a broad range of anti-Castro Cubans and Spanish conservatives to promote democracy in the island.
Guillermo Gortazar, a Popular Party deputy and secretary of the foundation, compared it to the alliance of anti-Franco groups that negotiated Spain's return to democracy in the 1970s.
But Spain's pro-Socialist media has charged that the foundation is another sign of Aznar's ties to Mas Canosa, who early this year bought Sintel, a Spanish telephone company subsidiary.
Behind all the heated rhetoric, there are significant questions over how the Aznar policies will affect Spain's business relations with Havana and its role as the EU's bridge to Cuba and Latin America.
Aznar should not protect Spaniards who do business with Cuba's ``apartheid economy. There's little morality in that,'' Gortazar said.
Judges could have a say
But Spanish judges could hold the government responsible if investors in Cuba suffer as a result of Aznar's policies, warned Hermenegildo Altozano, a leading consultant on Spanish investments in Cuba.
``To abandon Spanish entrepreneurs at a time when they are helping to introduce words like `efficiency, currency and development' to Cubans would be horrible,'' Altozano said.
``There are some European leaders who will be having a lot of fun because they are going to take advantage of the space we're opening for investments from other countries,'' Gonzalez told reporters.
Especially opposed to cooling ties with Cuba is the industrial region of Catalonia, whose business people have the lion's share of investments in Cuba and whose politicians provide key support for Aznar in Parliament.
As much as money, Spaniards also worry about image and influence -- that Aznar is essentially taking Spain out of the play on Cuba's future and surrendering its role as the EU leader on Latin American issues.
``Gonzalez reached out to the Cubans and could say he was a bridge between Europe and Cuba,'' said Susanne Gratius of the Institute for Europe-Latin America Relations, a Madrid think tank, ``but Aznar is pulling back.''
Copyright © 1996 The Miami Herald