Spain Questions Rebuff of Legislator

HAVANA TIMES, Jan. 4 – Spain’s Foreign Ministry has called in the Cuban ambassador to Madrid, Alejandro Gonzalez, to explain why Spanish European Parliament member Luis Yañez, a socialist, was not allowed to enter Cuba, reported IPS.

“The secretary of state for Iberoamerica, Juan Pablo de Laiglesia, has asked Cuba’s ambassador in Spain to explain on Tuesday the unjustified refusal into Cuba of the Euro MP,” Miguel Angel Moratinos, the Spanish minister for foreign affairs, said in a press release quoted by worldbulletin.net.

“Yanez is president for delegations dealing with Latin American trade group Mercosur and is a member of the parliamentary assembly covering European-Latin American relations.  Moratinos has said that Spain, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, will try to normalize relations between the bloc and the island during its term,” added the website.