• Submitted by: Camila
• Politics and Government
• 11 / 27 / 2014

---

The Cuban leader Raul Castro didn’t met yesterday the Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo who was in Cuba on an official visit. Although the meeting was never confirmed, it was expected as the culmination of the two official days of the Spanish foreign minister in Havana.

The Spanish diplomatic sources were could not explain yesterday the reasons for rudeness. In the absence of an official apology by the Cuban government suspected that their leaders have been upset with the conference Margallo gave at the Cuban diplomatic school, where Minister glossed in detail the process experienced by Spain in Transition. While not making appeals to the Cuban authorities, claimed clearly political "pluralism", the economic opening up, the end of censorship and the release of prisoners.

Anyway, the Spanish diplomacy put in value that Margallo, finally, was received by the number two of the regime and virtual successor to Castro in 2018, Miguel Diaz Canel, in a three-quarters of an hour meeting that in any case, had no media coverage.

While not expressing any discomfort Margallo answered the gesture of Castro changing the announced a press conference by an institutional statement without questions. At International Press Club he thanked before national and foreign media hospitality and warm welcome dispensed by the Government and people of Cuba, as an expression of normality in bilateral relations. But then, without leaving the diplomatic language, the Spanish foreign minister reflected a number of uncomfortable claims to the Castro regime.

He began by ensuring that Spain "would want faster economic reforms to give more room to private enterprise and foreign investment pace." Translating the specific demands that were raised yesterday by the representatives of nearly 300 Spanish companies, Margallo also called the "monetary reunification" and "decentralized decision-making" on the recruitment of Cuban labor.

Despite the snub, Margallo insisted during his testimony at the request of Raul Castro's participation in the Ibero-American Summit of Veracruz, the first that will preside Philip VI. For the Spanish diplomacy, achieve a full participation of leaders at the summit is essential to revitalize a forum that nearly aground in its latest edition, last year in Panama.

In fact, diplomatic sources said that King Philip himself telephoned minister Margallo to inquire about the course of his visit to Havana. The sources did not hide his disappointment last night by the Cuban reaction to the visit -on the other side risky in terms of international politics of the popular minister.

Source: El Mundo