Cuba, Spain resume official
contact
Cuba and Spain resumed official
contact Thursday, said Cuban
Foreign Minister Felipe Perez.
After a meeting with Spanish
Ambassador Carlos Zaldivar,
Perez said, "I have summoned the
Spanish ambassador to Havana to
inform... we're resuming
official contact."
Zaldivar said they exchanged
views on bilateral relations,
which represented the beginning
of a new process.
Diplomatic ties between the two
countries had been frozen
sincemid-2003 when Cuba slammed
the then Spanish Prime Minister
Jose Aznar for his efforts to
isolate and punish the country.
Cuba complained it was Aznar who
instigated the EU sanctions
inJune, 2003 to limit high-level
visits to Cuba, reduce cultural
exchanges and invite Cuban
dissidents to national
celebrations in EU member
countries.
Cuba had arrested 75 people in
that April, accusing them of
working with the United States
to undermine the Cuban
government.
After Jose Luis Rodriguez
Zapatero became Spain's Prime
Minister in April, Madrid has
adjusted its foreign policy
towards Cuba in order to better
impose influence on the island.
Colombian court approves
extraditing paramilitary leaders
to US
The Colombian Supreme Court on
Wednesday approved the
extradition of two top
paramilitary leaders and an
imprisoned rebel leader to the
United States.
United Self-Defense Forces of
Colombia (AUC) paramilitary
leaders Salvatore Mancuso and
Carlos Castano, and Ricardo
Palmera,rebel chief of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC), were wanted in
the United States on
drug-trafficking and money
laundering charges.
However, the final authorization
depended on President Alvaro
Uribe, who suspended the arrest
warrants against the AUC chiefs
as part of his plan for the
demobilization of the AUC.
Mancuso headed negotiations with
the Colombian government in the
demobilization process.
Ricardo Palmera, the FARC chief,
was captured a year ago in
Quito, Ecuador and is imprisoned
in a high-security jail.
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Brazilian landless activists
surround central bank
Over 8,000 Brazilian landless
activists on Thursday surrounded
the central bank, threatening to
grab more land next year unless
they get more public money to
speed up land reform.
Members of the Landless Workers
Movement burned a US flag with "IMF"
written on it and chanted for
the ouster of Finance Minister
Antonio Palocci.
Joao Pedro Stedile, a leader of
the peasant group, said peasants
could launch more land
occupations if Brazilian
President Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva does not allocate more
funds to expropriate and
redistribute unused farmland.
Lula has pledged to settle
400,000 families, or around 1.6
million people, during his
four-year term.
In April, the peasant group
launched its biggest wave of
land grabs in five years and
Stedile said next year's could
be even bigger.
Organizers said it was the
capital's biggest land reform
protest involving dozens of
peasant groups.
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