September 2, 1997

Cuban exiles will protest Castro presence at summit

  

Caracas, Sep 1 (EFE).- Cuban exile community representatives will meet in Caracas in November to protest Cuban President Fidel Castro's participation in the upcoming seventh Iberoamerican Summit, a meeting organizer told EFE Monday.

Cuban groups from the United States, Spain, Chile, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica will attend the "Summit in Venezuela for Democracy in Cuba" meeting in Caracas November 1-2, said anti-Castro leader Salvador Romaní.

Romaní explained that the meeting will produce a document that will be presented to the 21 leaders meeting November 7-9 on Margarita Island in eastern Venezuela.

Anti-Castro representatives will insist that Castro's presence at the November summit "is a joke" because the Cuban leader "makes a mockery of international law by signing agreements he himself won't honor," said another organizer.

"Democratic ethics is the topic of this summit. It is disturbing when a country that has been under a dictatorship for 38 years and is the oldest tyranny in the world talks about democracy," said Romaní.

The anti-Castro community will propose that the heads of state pressure Castro to honor agreements upholding democracy that were signed by the Cuban leader at previous meetings. EFE