Havana Envoy Briefly Detained as Cubans Leave Panama City

U.S. troops briefly detained a Cuban diplomat in Panama City today, but a planned evacuation of the families of Cuban diplomatic personnel and other Cuban nationals was going ahead, the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina said.

The agency said in a report from Panama that the diplomat, Victor Hernandez Gonzalez, was “practically kidnaped” by U.S. troops surrounding the residence and taken away in one of the U.S. armored vehicles that have been stationed around the building for more than a week.

He was released after less than an hour after being searched at gunpoint, Prensa Latina said.

It later quoted Cuban consul Jose Luis Mendez as saying a planned evacuation of the families of the Cuban diplomats in Panama and other Cubans who had been trapped there by the Dec. 20 U.S. invasion was going ahead despite the incident.

Cuban diplomats, including Ambassador Lazaro Mora, were briefly detained by U.S. troops in two similar incidents a week ago outside the ambassador’s residence.