Lawmakers from Spain, Italy and Germany urged their governments on Saturday take to a tougher line with Cuba after the communist government expelled a number of Europeans ahead of an opposition rally in Havana. Spanish officials demanded that Cuba explain why two Spanish politicians were told to leave the country and a third threatened with expulsion before the rare opposition demonstration, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday. Two former Spanish senators, Isabel San Baldomero and Rosa Lopez Garnica, were expelled, as were lawmakers from Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic.Arnold Vaatz, a German lawmaker who was expelled from Cuba on Friday, called for the European Union to take a stronger stand against Cuba. "With its decision to lift (diplomatic) sanctions against Cuba, the European Union has made itself the accomplice of Fidel Castro's government," Vaatz was quoted as saying by the Leipziger Volkszeitung daily. Six Poles — three journalists, a human rights worker and two students — and an Italian journalist also were ordered to leave the country. Spain said a deputy for the regional Catalan Convergence and Unity party also was threatened with expulsion and was at the Havana airport Saturday. The diverse dissident groups debated pro-democracy projects on Saturday, the second and final day of the meeting.
| Whoopdy doo. They do this every time Fidel acts like what he is, which is a Commie dictator. Then their collective attention span deficit kicks in and a few months later the dory is all back to being hunky. |