Castro counts his friends as EU sides with Cuban dissidents

by Marie Sanz

HAVANA, June 7 (<a href=www.eubusiness.com>EUBusiness-AFP) - Cuba has watched its number of friends dwindle after the European Union joined protests against a crackdown on dissidents by the island's veteran revolutionary leader, Fidel Castro.

Three months after EU Commissioner Poul Nielson and several Cuban ministers opened "a new era" in relations in Havana, a European diplomat said the latest events "will lead to a big freeze".

Cuba's Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque protested Friday that the EU decision to restrict political and cultural relations was an "over-reaction" and Europe had "caved-in to pressure, to the battering waves of US policy toward Cuba."

For weeks, high level Cuban officials have stayed away from European diplomatic events in Havana, and European diplomats in turn were not invited to the huge May Day celebrations in the capital. European embassies now regularly invite dissidents and their families to their functions.

The United States has been stepping up pressure on Cuba for months but Castro can ill afford to completely lose Europe, which is Cuba's main trade partner, accounting for 34 percent of foreign commerce.

Europe is also the main investor in Cuba and provided 800,000 of the 1.7 million foreign visitors last year.

Castro's island has faced widespread condemnation since its elderly leader ordered a crackdown on dissidents that led to the imprisonment of 75 opponents for up to 28 years. A moratorium on executions was ended when three men who tried to hijack a small ferry to Florida were put to death.

US President George W. Bush promised last month to keep supporting Cuba's dissidents, stressing that "dictatorships have no place in the Americas" in a special radio address to Cuba for the 101st anniversary of the island's independence on May 20.

He also met 11 former Cuban political prisoners and their families, while 14 Cuban diplomats were recently expelled from the United States.

The United States demanded Monday that Cuba provide medical attention to a severely ill jailed dissident, Oscar Espinosa Chepe, and pressed for medical care for others rounded up in a recent crackdown.

Like other countries on the US list of accused terrorist sponsors, Cuba has expressed fears that it will be the next country invaded after Iraq. But the US administration has made it clear military action is not yet an option.

And Castro is not entirely friendless, particularly in Latin America.

The Cuban leader can count on the sympathy of Brazil's left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez.

Castro recently attended the inauguration of Argentina's new president, Nestor Kirchner, and was cheered by thousands when he gave an anti-US speech.

Even the United States knows it has to be wary in dealings on Cuba. It has agreed that Cuba will not be a top agenda item at the Organization of American States general assembly meeting in Santiago on Monday and Tuesday.

Cuban dissidents welcomed the European measures, announced by the Greek presidency of the EU on Thursday.

"These measures are totally just and necessary," said Elizardo Sanchez, president of the Cuban Human Rights and Reconciliation Commission. His commission is considered illegal and Sanchez is one of the rare opposition leaders still at liberty.

"The EU has clearly shown itself on the side of the Cuban people," he added.

Vladimiro Roca, who was recently released from five years in prison and is now spokesman for another opposition group, "All United", said: "This will put matters in perspective for Cuba, where the government justifies its actions in the name of a bilateral conflict with the United States."