PANAMA: CASTRO AND FLORES CLASH AT SUMMIT

(19 Nov 2000) Spanish/Nat

A dispute over a resolution against terrorism spiralled into a squabble at the close of the Ibero-American summit on Saturday.

The leaders of Cuba and El Salvador hurled allegations, drenched in civil war bitterness.

Salvadoran President Francisco Flores accused Cuba's Fidel Castro of involvement in El Salvador's civil war.

Castro expressed anger that the anti-terrorism measure sponsored by El Salvador and Mexico expressed sympathy for Spain, but with no mention of Cuba.

Flores accused Castro of involvement in the deaths of "tens of thousands" of Salvadorans during El Salvador's civil war, which ended in 1992.

Castro admitted training rebels from many countries, saying "inter-revolutionary support is a tradition," but insisted he had stopped such aid when other countries stopped trying to isolate Cuba.

Castro claimed that several nations had cooperated with or failed to stop those trying to overthrow his government.

Panamanian officials had just detained a shadowy former C-I-A agent Castro accused of trying to assassinate
him.

The man, Luis Posada Carriles, was detained on Friday evening just hours after the Cuban leader accused him of plotting an assassination.

Police had 24 hours to charge or release Posada, who escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985 while awaiting retrial on charges of masterminding the bombing of a Cuban jetliner in 1976 that killed 73 people.

Police said no weapons were found with Posada or three other people detained with him at a Panama City hotel.

Posada had been using a Salvadoran passport in the name of Franco Rodriguez Mena.

He did not identify the others detained.

The angry exchanges at the summit raged on as other presidents tried to cut off the seemingly out of control debate.

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez appealed for "unity and brotherhood" as the session finally ended, hours behind schedule.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"We condemn those crimes committed in Spain, we condemn them as we would condemn any crimes anywhere else, for instance those committed by the Israelis against the Palestinians. What really surprises me is that the proposal has been put forward by El Salvador, and backed by Mexico. I find that really weird. (El Salvador) were the main terrorist leads against whom nothing has been ever done, and he's now in jail (in Panama), and the world knows all that, and this has created a problem at this summit."
SUPER CAPTION: Fidel Castro, Cuban leader

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"The Salvadoran delegation proposed to condemn ETA's crimes in Spain and we did it in solidarity with the Spanish people, and because we have suffered cruelly many years of war, and we know what terrorism can do to a society. And that is why Mr Castro it is absolutely intolerable that you, involved in the death of so many Salvadorans you who trained so many people to kill Salvadorans, accuse me of being involved in the case of Luis Posada Tosadas Carriles."
SUPER CAPTION: Francisco Flores, El Salvador President

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"He accuses me of the deaths in El Salvador and many other things."
SUPER CAPTION: Fidel Castro, Cuban leader

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"Let's just vote now."
SUPER CAPTION: Jorge Battel, President of Uruguay

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"Let's just vote on the resolution now. The motion has been approved."
SUPER CAPTION: Mireya Moscoso, President of Panama

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