Cuba warns of severed ties with Panama if anti-Castro prisoners freed
Monday, August 23, 2004
HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): The Cuban government
warned Sunday that it would cut off relations with Panama immediately if the
Central American nation pardoned four Cubans who plotted to assassinate
President Fidel Castro in 2000. "If these
monstrous criminals are pardoned, diplomatic relations between the Republic of
Cuba and the Republic of Panama will be automatically severed in the same
instant the act is announced," a government press release said.
Luis Posada Carriles, Gaspar Jimenez Escobedo, Pedro Remon and Guillermo Novo
Sampol, are serving sentences of seven or eight years in Panama for a plot to
assassinate Castro during the Iberoamerican Summit in Panama in 2000.
Earlier this month Cuban officials denounced rumors circulating in Panama and
Miami that Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso would decide whether to pardon
the four Cuban prisoners between August 15 and 30. Panama inaugurates
president-elect Martin Torrijos on September 1.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell asked Moscoso to release the four during a
visit to Panama for its 100th anniversary, the statement claimed.
"In the context of the US elections, the administration of President George W
Bush is trying desperately to get votes and money from the recalcitrant
sectors of the Cuban population in Florida," it said.
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