SPAIN: 100 Years on and Divided Feelings Toward Cuba

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, May 18 1997 (IPS) - Cuba marks the 100th anniversary of its independence from Spain next year – an event which again will reflect the mixed feelings in Spain toward its former colony.

While King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia plan to visit Cuba early in 1988, a Congress of presidents of Democratic Ibero- American Parliaments schedled here May 29-30, has caused a new rift between the two countries.

The president of the Cuban legislature, Ricardo Alarcon, was the only head of parliament not invited as a full member, but rather as an observer. Alarcon spurned the invitation, pointing out to the Spanish government that his country ceased being a colony nearly a century ago. He added that Cuba has participated in equality of conditions in the annual Ibero-American Summits held since 1991, and that it refused to accept “discriminatory and interventionist treatment.”

The decision not to invite Cuba as a full member, made by the president of the Spanish parliament Federico Trillo, received the backing of the conservative governing Popular Party (PP) as well as the leading opposition force, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE).

Only the United Left (IU) coalition, based on the Communist Party, criticised the decision, which it said went against Spain’s interests.

A similar incident occurred in 1986. President Fidel Castro called then-foreign minister Francisco Fernandez Ordonez of the PSOE government “a fascist-like type,” after Cuba was excluded from the Congress of heads of parliament.

PSOE spokesman Luis Yanez said Cuba should not bother itself over the distinction between full member and observer. He added that Cubans were overly sensitive due to the “policy of isolation” imposed by the United States.

Spain’s ambiguity toward Cuba has also re-emerged with the announced visit by the King and Queen.

The dictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939-75), the democratic transition government (1975-78) and succeeding administrations all maintained economic, cultural and political relations with Cuba, no Spanish head of State made an official visit to Havana. Castro visited Spain in 1992, but as one of the participants in the second Ibero-American Summit.

Although Spanish politicians and diplomats have suggested that the King should visit the island, none of the governments in office since 1975 lent their approval, as required by the constitution.

Foreign Minister Abel Matutes has now announced that the government is studying the possibility of such a visit and, while no precise date has been set, analysts say it would be next year, to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of Cuba’s independence.

Cuba ceased being a Spanish colony in 1898, when the Spanish navy was defeated by U.S. warships. Cuba became a de facto U.S. protectorate thanks to the Platt Amendment, through which the U.S. government granted itself the right to militarily intervene in Cuba “to ensure stability.”

Spain continues to condemn U.S. intervention in Cuba, which has come in the form of a 35-year economic embargo against the island nation and, today, the Helms-Burton law which seeks to give the blockade an international character.

Although a majority of Spain’s political parties would like to see a process of democratisation in Cuba, none of them are in favour of foreign intervention to achieve that end.

Local analysts say a visit by the King and Queen would contribute to Cuban democracy. They point to a 1978 trip to Argentina, when that country was ruled by a de facto military regime. Although it was not on the official agenda, King Juan Carlos received the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in the Spanish Embassy in Buenos Aires, expressing his concern over the fate of their sons and daughters who had been “disappeared” by the dictatorship.

Not only Spain has divided feelings toward Cuba. Like Spain’s head of government Jose Maria Aznar, Argentine President Carlos Menem has also criticised Castro. But he told Aznar in April that he believed Cuba should not be isolated.

Eduardo Menem, Carlos’ brother and the president of the Argentine parliament, said in Havana this week that “Cuba should participate (in the May 29-30 Congress) in the same conditions as the rest of the Latin American countries.” It has yet to be seen whether such opinions will influence Federico Trillo’s decision.