CUBA-SPAIN: Diplomatic Row could Lead to Full-Blown Crisis

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Mar 21 1997 (IPS) - A traffic accident in Cuba involving a Spanish tourist and local citizens gave rise this week to a fresh diplomatic row between the two countries.

Since an earlier rift late last year, when the government of Fidel Castro withdrew its approval from Spain’s Ambassador in Havana, Jose Coderch, the European country has no ambassador here.

Analysts warn that a full-blown crisis could arise from the present tiff, which has so far consisted of declarations by Spanish Foreign Minister Abel Matutes – who advised citizens from his country on Wednesday to stay away from Cuba due to an “absolute lack” of legal guarantees – and a sharp retort from his Cuban counterpart Roberto Robaina.

The incident originated in a traffic accident in which Spanish tourist Jesus Martin, driving a rental car, ran into a motorcycle carrying two Cubans.

That is the only detail on which the two sides agree. There are divergences regarding the date – early February according to Matutes; Mar. 1 says Robaina – and the extent of the damages – minor injuries for the woman driving the motorcycle, says Spain; serious spinal column and other injuries, insists Cuba.

Martin told reporters from Spain’s state-run radio station in Havana that the police asked him for 2,500 dollars to settle the incident out of court.

Matutes said authorities refused to let the tourist leave the country until the trial was held. But the trial did not take place, he said, because the injured woman failed to show up and Martin did not have the 800 dollars demanded in lawyer’s fees. Furthermore, the minister added, although the presiding judge granted the tourist permission to return home, police and customs authorities have refused to let him leave Cuba for over a month.

Robaina’s response Thursday was to call Matutes “arrogant, meddling and dishonest.”

“I am responding to Matutes” because “it was he who made the statements,” said Robaina, in what local observers called an attempt to keep the incident from having wider repercussions.

By attempting to turn a traffic accident into a political problem, Matutes was trying “to hurt Cuba’s image as a tourist destination,” Robaina charged. He cited allegations printed in the Spanish press that the minister was fanning the flames of the already heated relationship between the two countries in order to benefit other tourist centres in the Caribbean where he held shares.

The general manager of the Spanish hotel chain Tryp, Antonio Fernandez Casado, accused Matutes of seeking to give a boost to his economic interests in two hotels in the Dominican Republic.

Robaina said Matutes’ statements contradicted the position of other representatives of the right-wing government of Jose Maria Aznar who advocated the maintenance of normal relations between the two countries.

He also denied that the retention of Martin had any connection with the detention in Spain of one Cuban – “not two as Matutes claimed” – on charges of possession of drugs.

“For more than four decades, Cuba has demonstrated that it will not yield to any pressure or blackmail,” said Robaina, who stressed that “tourists and members of the foreign business community can count on all the necessary guarantees during their stay on the island.”

Relations have been tense between the two countries since late last year, when former ambassador Coderch told the Spanish daily ‘ABC’ that he would open the doors of his embassy to Cuban dissidents, and would do everything possible to boost “a move towards democracy” in the Caribbean island nation.