A Spanish diplomat who served as ambassador in Havana from 2001 to 2004 was appointed Thursday to head the Foreign Ministry section that handles Spain’s relations with Latin America.
Jesús Gracia Aldaz, named as Secretary of State for Iberoamerica, was Spain’s ambassador to Cuba when Havana courts sentenced 75 dissidents to lengthy prison terms during a crackdown in 2003 known as “Cuba’s Black Spring.”
He was appointed to the Cuba post in 2001 by the conservative People’s Party government of Prime Minister José Maria Aznar and left the island in 2004, when socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero succeeded Aznar. PP leader Mariano Rajoy took over as prime minister after his party won the November elections.
Joaquin Roy, who heads the European Union Center at the University of Miami, noted that while Gracia is experienced in Spanish-Cuban relations, he will have to follow the policy guidelines set by Rajoy and Foreign Minister José Manuel García Margallo.
“Everything depends on how active Rajoy and García-Margallo want to be on Cuba. I would be surprised if they start any ‘harassment’ (against the Cuban government) … that goes beyond the verbal,” Roy wrote in an email to El Nuevo Herald.
