Washington hopes Spain will help bring democracy to Cuba, says official
|
| Published on Friday, June 1, 2007 |
Email To Friend Print Version |
MADRID, Spain (AFP): The United States hopes that Spain will use its influence over Cuba to help bring democracy to the communist Caribbean island, a senior US official said Thursday in a newspaper interview.
"Spain has enormous influence over Cuba. I hope she will use this influence to bring democracy," Dan Fried, assistant secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, told the Spanish daily El Pais.
The interview was published a day ahead of an official visit to Spain by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has been critical of Madrid's policy of constructive engagement with Cuba, a former Spanish colony.
"Many in Spain look at Castro and Cuba through the prism of ideological categories which date back to the 1960s," said Fried.
"I don't see Castro particularly like a man of the left because I don't think that the biggest tradition of the left is dictatorhip. I think he is simply a dictator," he added.
Rice, apeaking to reporters traveling with her to Germany on Tuesday, said that dealing with Cuba's regime "at the expense of contacts with the very nascent and fragile democratic opposition that is beginning to arise in Cuba" would not help the cause of democracy.
Madrid and Havana agreed to hold political consultations, including on the issue of human rights, during a visit to Cuba last month by Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos.
Moratinos avoided meeting with Cuban dissidents during his visit, which was the first by a European Union foreign minister since the bloc imposed sanctions on the island in 2003.
Washington has a policy of isolating Cuba and its ailing President Fidel Castro. It has enforced trade sanctions and a travel ban against Havana for 45 years.
Spain's junior foreign minister Bernardino Leon defended Madrid's policy. "No Spanish government has paid as much attention to Cuban dissidents as the current government," he said.
On Wednesday, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said he would discuss the "very different approach" regarding Cuba between Madrid and Washington with Rice.
"And when we do the positions are going to be much more understandable and much closer," he added.
|
|
