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As usual, Castro steals the show!

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November 19, 2000 

PANAMA CITY--(AP) - The king of Spain and leaders from throughout Latin America were here, but the spotlight was on one man at the Ibero-American summit: Fidel Castro, who stole the show by alleging that his enemies had sent armed assassins to murder him.

The Cuban president said Friday that the assassination plot was led by a Cuban exile named Luis Posada Carriles, who has admitted to Cuban hotel bombings in the past. Hours later, police detained Posada Carriles and three other Cuban exiles at a Panama hotel for questioning.

The four had apparently arrived in the country Wednesday, and no guns were found in their possession, chief of police Carlos Bares told The Associated Press. He said they could be held for up to 24 hours and were still in custody late Friday.

Castro's allegations came during his first visit to Panama since he took power in 1959. Within hours of his arrival, he had announced there accusations without proof. Where are the people he's talking about?"

Posada has been accused of organizing the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner that killed 73 people. He was twice acquitted of that, but he spent nine years in a Venezuelan prison before escaping in 1985.

In July 1998, the New York Times quoted Posada as admitting he organized bombings of hotels in Cuba.

Panamanian Interior Minister Winston Spadafora said an advance security team for Castro had been in Panama for several months and that the Cuban leader had been "offered all security and all cooperation."

At his press conference, Castro joked that there have been "about 600" atiday was symbolic, coming less than a year after the United States handed over control of the Panama Canal to the Panamanian government after 97 years. Upon his arrival, Castro praised Panama for achieving "full sovereignty" with the December 1999 handover.

Castro, who hosted last year's Ibero-American Summit, opened this year's session by speaking about the meeting's main topic: the problems children face in Latin America. The U.N. Children's Fund estimates that about 500,000 children under the age of 5 die each year in the region.

Also Friday, Cuba blocked a resolution condemning terrorism by the Basque separatist organization ETA. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said Cuba considers the issue an internal matter for Spain and favors a more general condemnation of terrorism.