Cuba rejects EU criticism

Cuba's president, Fidel Castro, has announced his government's intention to reject humanitarian aid from the European Union after the its 15 member states - along with the 13 countries queuing to join - expressed indignation at Havana's decision to sentence 75 dissidents to lengthy jail sentences and slap the death penalty on three hijackers who kidnapped a ferry in an unsuccessful attempt to reach US territory.

Cuba asserted the actions were adopted to put an end to a US operation intended to justify a military invasion of the Caribbean Island.

The Brussels-based body described the actions as "deplorable" and said it was "deeply concerned about the continuing flagrant violation of human rights and of fundamental freedoms of members of the Cuban opposition and of independent journalists".

In a significant hardening of the EU's stance, foreign ministers decided to limit high-level governmental visits to the island, downgrade member states' participation in cultural events, invite Cuban dissidents to national celebrations in European embassies, and take a second look at EU-Cuban relations in July.

Cuban reaction was one of anger and frustration. In a four-hour TV address to the nation, President Fidel Castro blamed Spain and Italy for driving through the EU's hard-line position. He described Spanish Premier Jose-Maria Aznar as a "little Fuhrer with a moustache and Nazi-fascist ideology" and dubbed Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi a "clown" and a "fool".

Castro noted that the supposed aid that the European bloc offers Cuba is virtually insignificant, averaging $1.5 million USD per year and bogged down in bureaucratic dealings and heavy political pressure. He said it was absurd to pressure Cuba with economic and political measures when its besieged and blockaded people, in a little country with few resources, are extending their hands in solidarity to the whole world, providing medical health for many developing countries and facilitating college education for 16,000 foreign students from Africa, Latin America and poor neighbourhoods of the US.

"Our people reject any humanitarian aid offered by the European Commission and governments and will only accept such aid via organisations and autonomies that do not impose political conditions," the Cuban leader affirmed.

He challenged the European countries to speak with actions and not just words in relation to human rights, to take care of their millions of unemployed, to guarantee real social services to their citizens, to educate the illiterate and confront drug abuse and its consequences.

The day after his speech, a fatigue-clad Castro led tens of thousands of militants on a protest march outside the Spanish embassy in Havana, with brother Raul heading a similar demonstration outside the Italian embassy.

Cuba also decided to withdraw its application to join the African Caribbean and Pacific grouping, which unites the EU with over 70 of its former colonies. Also, on Sunday 27 July, the government announced it was taking control of the Spanish cultural centre in Havana, which it alleged was being used for "subversive activities".

But if the EU's more muscular stance has irritated Havana, it has not done much for human rights not in Cuba nor in the several other countries with whom the EU has economic and political dealings and whose human rights records are worst than Cuba's and whose application of the death penalty is to say the least more "liberal".

Six Basques arrested in Mexico

In Mexico, six Basque citizens have been arrested by order of the Spanish government, which is accusing them of acting as "a logistic cell" of the Basque pro-independence organisation ETA.

Some of the detainees declared their innocence during interviews with Mexican newspaper La Jornada and TV channel Televisa. In an interview published in the newspaper La Jornada, the only woman arrested by the Mexican Police, Axun Gorrotxategi, recalled how she emigrated to Mexico when her husband, Jon Artola - who has also been also arrested - felt threatened in the Basque Country. She explained that her life in Puerto Escondido in Mexico has been quite ordinary, only travelling to Mexico City once a month to see the doctor, do some shopping and visit friends in the Basque cultural society.

Gorrotxategi's husband, Jon Artola, denied the accusations made by the chief of the Special Unit against Organised Criminality, Jose Luis Vasconcelos. The police chief had claimed that in the home of the Basque family they found a chemical weapons manual and "compromising" videos. Artola said the videos found in the house are of a niece's birthday and some documentaries about the Basque Country. He said the police had carried out the house searches without warrants or witnesses, adding that they could have planted any kind of evidence.

Artola explained that money found in one of the houses was the result of a fundraising campaign to pay for a very expensive operation for a Basque resident in Mexico, Sagradio Yoldi. "That is the mystery of the money laundering," another of the detainees, Felix Garcia, explained to La Jornada.