Socialists fail to back motion on EL PAÍS Cuba correspondent

The Senate's Iberoamerican Affairs Committee on Wednesday approved a Popular Party-backed motion demanding that the Cuban government allow an EL PAÍS correspondent to return to the island following his expulsion.

The motion was passed without the vote from the Socialists, who wanted to tweak the wording so as not to offend the government in Havana. The PP immediately accused the Socialists of "feeding the dragon that oppresses people."

Francisco Vallejo, the Socialist spokesman on the committee, charged that the PP has no interest in urging Cuba to give back correspondent Mauricio Vicent's press accreditation but instead wants to attack the Spanish government, which had success in winning the release of Cuban dissidents last year.

Vicent, who had been reporting from Cuba for the past 20 years, was told last month that his accreditation would not be renewed because of his supposedly "biased" reporting.

Joan Saura, committee spokesman for the leftist Catalan "greens" (ICV), said that the motion was forwarded in the "defense of freedom of expression" and lamented that the PP and the Socialists had not managed to vote together on this matter. The committee passed the motion 14 to 11.