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Castro to stay away from Spanish
summit.
Spanish news agency Europa Press reported that two anti-Castro groups in
Spain planned to file a legal complaint against Castro for crimes
against humanity in Spain's High Court if he set foot in Spain. It was
not immediately clear what the complaint referred to.
Cuban President Fidel Castro will stay
away from a summit of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking leaders in Spain,
a Spanish government spokesman said on Thursday.
Spanish news agency Europa Press reported that two anti-Castro groups in
Spain planned to file a legal complaint against Castro for crimes
against humanity in Spain's High Court if he set foot in Spain. It was
not immediately clear what the complaint referred to.
"Castro is not coming ... The Spanish government has been informed of
the decision," the spokesman said, adding that he did not know the
reasons for Castro's decision.
The 22-nation Ibero-American summit begins in the historic Spanish city
of Salamanca on Friday.
Spanish government officials had said previously they expected the
79-year-old Communist leader to attend the annual Ibero-American summit
for the first time since 2000.
Castro is notorious for only announcing at the last minute whether he
will attend international events.
A spokesman for the Cuban delegation could not confirm that Castro would
not attend.
Spain's Constitutional Court ruled last week that Spanish courts have
jurisdiction to investigate cases of genocide and crimes against
humanity outside Spain, even if no Spanish victims were involved.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said Castro was busy dealing
with Cuba's medical assistance to Central American countries hit by
Hurricane Stan.
IMMIGRATION ON AGENDA
The two-day summit will focus on the economy, immigration and how to
raise the Ibero-American group's international profile.
On the eve of the summit, foreign ministers discussed a Spanish proposal
to swap debt owed to Madrid for commitments to invest in education,
summit Secretary General Enrique Iglesias said.
The former Inter-American Development Bank chief said no target had been
set and the amount would depend on negotiations.
"Two or three countries, including Ecuador ... are negotiating with
Spain," said Iglesias, head of the summit's newly created permanent
secretariat.
Spain's 18-month old Socialist government has put Latin America at the
top of its foreign policy agenda and is keen to boost economic and
social development in the highly indebted region.
The foreign ministers also discussed a Cuban proposal for a draft
resolution on terrorism. Cuba wanted the summit to back the extradition
to Venezuela of anti-Castro Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, a former
CIA operative wanted by Venezuela over a 1976 Cuban airliner bombing
that killed 73 people.
Posada, 77, has been held by the United States since May for illegally
crossing the border into Texas from Mexico. He has denied involvement in
the bombing.
A U.S. judge has ruled that Posada may not be deported to Cuba or
Venezuela, saying he faced the threat of torture.
Cuba's Perez said the foreign ministers had backed a draft resolution
supporting "steps to bring about the extradition and to bring to justice
the person responsible" for the attack on the Cuban plane.
However, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said his
counterparts had agreed on a generic statement which would be put before
leaders at the summit.
"A declaration has been finalised on extradition, a declaration which
affects all of us, which could affect Cuba or Venezuela, but which could
also affect Spain," he said.
Source:
La Nueva Cuba
October 13, 2005
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