Cuba, Venezuela gain at Ibero-American summit

Washington’s aggressive policies suffered two defeats in Salamanca, Spain, in mid-October: one diplomatic, at the Ibero-American summit, and one in the streets.

Leaders of 19 Latin American countries plus those of Spain, Portugal and Andorra met in Salamanca and voted unanimously to condemn the U.S. blockade of Cuba. They also supported another Cuban proposal that CIA terrorist Luis Posada Carriles be extradited to Venezuela. Posada is considered the organizer of the bombing that downed a Cuban airliner in 1976, killing 73 people, including a fencing team made up largely of teenagers.

While similar summits had earlier protested U.S. economic strangulation of Cuba, this was the first one to use the word “blockade” to describe these policies. Cuba has long said they amount to a blockade, while the U.S. uses the softer word “embargo.” Many of the countries involved oppose U.S. policies because they not only hurt Cuba but punish those countries that trade with the socialist island.

The decision stung Washington enough that its embassy in Madrid said it wanted to express “concern” about the development to the Spanish government. Their concern was that the decision was too friendly to Cuba.

Whether this diplomatic victory will change Cuba’s ability to trade with the world is still to be determined. But Cuba and Venezuela won another battle in Salamanca, this one in the streets.

In solidarity with the two revolutionary Latin American countries, progressives from Spain and Portugal massed in Salamanca Oct. 15 on the last day of the summit.

According to organizers’ estimates, between 10,000 and 15,000 people, including 1,000 who came by bus from all over Portugal, marched in Salamanca and rallied outside the Wurzburg Sports Arena in a cold rain. After authorities revoked permission to meet in the arena, demonstration organizers decided to hold the rally in the same locale, but outside.

In an attempt to discourage protesters, the Spanish Civil Guard held up the Portuguese at the border for individual identification, although this is no longer supposed to happen in the European Union. Hundreds of the Portuguese protesters were thus delayed and arrived too late for the march, but in time for the rally.

A small group of 200 right-wing, anti-Castro Cubans stayed behind a protective barrier of Spanish police.

A report from the Red Current organization in Spain described the events this way: “The shouts and the slogans in solidarity with the Cuban and Venezuelan people and their revolutionary processes were ceaseless during the long march that overflowed the streets of the city. These slogans mixed with those which, justifiably, denounced the role of Spanish imperialism in the recolonization of Latin America and those acknowledging the struggles of other people, like the Boli vians or the Colombians.”

Earlier in the day, 5,000 people called together by leftist groups from the Spanish state demonstrated against Spain’s King Juan Carlos and against the institution of the monarchy.