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Even Fidel's Friends Are Saying "Enough" As Mexico's President Zedillo and other Latin leaders openly criticize him, Castro's grip on Cuba may never be the same For 40 years, Mexico has been one of Cuba's staunchest allies in the Western Hemisphere, defending Fidel Castro's regime when few others would. So when Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo pronounced on Nov. 16 -- in Havana no less -- that democracy as well as freedom of speech and thought are essential in every country, it was a clear signal to Castro that times have changed. Never before has a top Mexican official been so publicly critical of Cuba's strongman. "There cannot be sovereign nations without free men and women, who can fully exercise their essential freedoms: Freedom to think and give opinions, freedom to act and participate, freedom to dissent, freedom to choose," Zedillo told the closing session of the Ninth Ibero-American Summit in Havana, which drew heads of state and Foreign Ministers from 23 countries around Latin America, Spain, and Portugal. Zedillo wasn't the only leader calling for more freedom on the island. At least nine heads of state and Foreign Ministers, including Mexico's Rosario Green, met with prominent Cuban dissident Elizardo Sanchez and other activists during the summit. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who met with opponents of the Castro regime and called for the release of four jailed dissidents, said he did so "because I'm not a part-time democrat." That barbed comment was notable because Spanish companies are the second-largest investors in Cuba, especially in the booming tourist industry, after Canadian outfits. ALL IS NOT WELL. For Castro, hosting the summit was a public relations coup of sorts: It was the highest-profile meeting held in Cuba since the nonaligned nations met there in 1979. But there were risks from the start: Antigovernment demonstrators might show the world that all is not well in Cuba. In an effort to quash any possible demonstrations, Castro jailed more than a dozen dissidents in the days leading up to the summit. Pro-government crowds harassed some protesters who attempted to stage small rallies. Castro, though, had little choice but to allow the dignitaries to meet with dissident leaders. And the experience clearly rattled him. At a press conference ending the one-day meeting, he slammed his fist on a podium and demanded: "Why don't they respect what we are doing? Do we or do we not have the right to give ourselves the political, economic, and social system we believe to be correct?" But Aznar's and Zedillo's public encouragement of the dissidents was a clear sign that the international community is ready to put pressure on Castro to open up Cuba's political system. As the only unelected leader in all of Latin America, Castro seemed strangely out of place dressed in his drab green military uniform as he greeted official visitors to the summit. NO ENDORSEMENT. Throughout the region, military regimes have fallen out of favor, and voters have demanded greater democracy and accountability. The Presidents of Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Nicaragua stayed away from the summit because of ideological differences with Castro. And the Presidents of Argentina and Chile refused to attend alongside Spanish officials because of Spain's attempts to extradite former Chilean military President Augusto Pinochet for trial for alleged human rights abuses. While the summit delegates signed a declaration decrying the U.S. embargo of Cuba and the Helms-Burton Act as illegitimate interference in Cuban affairs, they also wanted to make sure Castro realized they weren't endorsing his one-party state. Pope John Paul II's historic visit to Cuba last year raised hopes that Castro would ease pressure on dissidents and perhaps allow more freedom of expression. But that hasn't happened. In fact, the government has cracked down on dissent this year. "There's a growing impression among foreign observers that Cuba is a boiling cauldron that's being contained by the security forces, and that this cannot be sustained without tremendous consequences," says independent Mexican Senator Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, whose recent visit to the island set the stage for Mexico's meeting with dissident leader Sanchez. Since Castro's revolution triumphed in 1959, Mexico's long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which came to power after the Mexican Revolution, used its relationship with Cuba, in part, to show its independence from Washington. Mexico has always voted in the U.N. against the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba. Even in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when Cuba was helping antigovernment rebels in Central America, and Mexico was worried about its own nascent rebel movements, Mexican officials continued to support Castro diplomatically. Although Mexico-U.S. relations have warmed in recent years, culminating in the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico City has maintained its independence from Washington. So Zedillo's comments marked a sharp depature in policy. TURNED OFF. Now, with the PRI coming under increasing pressure to complete Mexico's own transformation from an authoritarian, one-party state to a multiparty democracy, wholehearted support for Castro's Communist Party regime seems anachronistic. While many in Mexico admire Cuba's achievements in universal education and health care -- policy areas where Mexico has failed to achieve reforms -- they now feel uncomfortable with Fidel's one-man show and rigid ideology. Even Mexico's left-leaning intellectuals, who traditionally have sympathized with the Cuban revolution, say they're turned off by Castro's crackdown on dissidents. Mexico's decision to meet with those dissidents, and Zedillo's speech at the summit, set an entirely new tone for Mexican-Cuban relations. That leaves Castro more isolated than before. Although the bearded dictator remains very much in charge, the voices of dissent are now being heard around the world, and Cuba will never be quite the same. Mexico City Bureau Chief Smith has long covered Latin American issues for Business Week EDITED BY DOUGLAS HARBRECHT _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |
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