No paté for political opponents in Cuba

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In the 4-year-old ‘Canape War’ being waged in the Old World elegance of Havana’s diplomatic salons, the latest victory goes to the regime of Fidel Castro.

Spain announced today that it won’t be inviting Cuban dissidents to its Oct. 12 National Day reception at the embassy in Havana — a bow to the fidelistas’ angry rejection of any challenge to the Communist Party’s monopoly on power.

Most European Union countries have included the beleaguered activists in their annual celebrations in a gesture of solidarity with Cuba’s fledgling pro-democracy forces. The invitations have also been a silent reproach of the Castro government’s March 2003 crackdown on dissenters that resulted in the arrests of 75 regime critics and the summary execution of three men who sought to hijack a plane to Miami.

Cuban government officials have boycotted or stormed out of receptions where political opponents were invited, prompting Spain — Cuba’s third-largest trade partner and a key investor in the island’s tourism industry — to break ranks with other EU nations and resume official contacts.

An April visit to Havana by Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratino resulted in a pledge by Madrid to engage with the Cuban government ‘without conditions,’ spurring protests among Miami’s stridently anti-Castro Cuban exiles and by Eastern European EU member states that suffered under decades of communist rule.

Posted by Carol J. Williams in Miami