At a dinner during the ninth Ibero-American summit, which concluded in Havana yesterday, the Cuban leader, President Fidel Castro, denounced "the constant US aggression" against the island, writes Michael McCaughan. Special guest King Juan Carlos of Spain, emphasised the importance of democracy.
The summit's final declaration, signed by 21 attending Latin American states plus Portugal and Spain, performed a similar balancing act between defence of sovereignty and espousal of human rights. Just before the summit opened, some 50 dissidents were detained on their way to an opposition meeting, which finally went ahead, attended by 12 small dissident groups and a member of the resident US Interest Section (the US having no embassy in Cuba). "The heavy-handed response proves once more that the government is unwilling to tolerate even moderate opposition," said Mr Elizardo Sanchez, one of the island's best-known dissidents.
Later the Cuban Foreign Minister, Mr Perez Roque, disclosed a letter by the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, in which she urged delegates to meet dissidents in public and denounce the absence of freedom.
Dr Castro held an eight-hour press conference in which he described the US government as "the biggest giant ever seen by human eyes, which failed to defeat the revolution despite dirty wars, mercenary invasions, threats of nuclear war, embargoes and mass media to spread its lies and falsehoods".
The Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar deepened ill-feeling among his hosts when he said that "nothing would change in Cuba until Castro passed away". But Mr Aznar said at a news conference: "Isolation makes no sense, pressure from outside makes no sense."
The Havana Declaration reaffirmed the right of each nation to self-determination and rejected the concept of extra-territoriality, which was described as "contrary to the spirit of co-operation and friendship which ought to prevail between our peoples". The declaration also endorsed commitment to "democratic principles", which Dr Castro interprets differently to the other participants.
The Chilean delegation was pleased with the implicit support for an end to the Pinochet trial while Cuba inserted a rejection of the US Helms-Burton law, which allows US courts to fine non-nationals from third countries who trade with the island.
The Havana Declaration also includes the demand for a "fair and lasting solution" to the external debt issue and a commitment to a more "just, egalitarian and fraternal" world order.