Foreign minister to negotiate release of PP youth leader with Cuban counterpart

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo plans on meeting with his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodríguez during the upcoming Iberoamerican Summit in Cádiz in a bid to secure the release of Ángel Carromero, the Popular Party (PP) youth official, who is in jail on the island following his conviction for negligent homicide.

According to diplomatic sources, García-Margallo will try to convince Rodríguez to push for the expulsion of the 27-year-old Carromero as soon as possible so as not to prolong the matter, which could continue to affect relations between the two nations. The two ministers have agreed to meet privately to discuss the case during the summit, which will be held between November 16 and 17 in the Andalusian city.

Carromero, who serves as the secretary general of the Madrid chapter of Nuevas Generaciones, the PP youth wing, was sentenced to four years by a Cuban court for his involvement in a car accident in which two anti-Castro regime activists were killed.

Defense lawyers have renounced their right to appeal in order to help speed up diplomatic talks between Madrid and Havana aimed at securing Carromero’s release and expulsion from the country, family sources told Europa Press last week. The July 22 accident that killed prominent dissident Osvaldo Payá, 60, the leader of the dissident Cuban Liberation Movement, and his assistant Harold Cepero, 31, has strained relations between Spain’s PP administration and the Castro government.

Carromero was in the country helping dissidents with their activities.

If Carromero’s defense team were to appeal the decision, any attempts to win Carromero’s freedom via diplomatic channels would take longer, say legal analysts.

One of the options on the table that diplomats may discuss is to allow Carromero to serve out his prison term in Spain, under the terms of a 1998 bilateral treaty. He could also ask President Raúl Castro for a pardon, which is rare under the Communist regime.

Carromero was driving a rented vehicle on a road near the city of Bayamo, the capital of Granma province, with Payá and Cepero riding as passengers. The two Cubans were both killed after Carromero lost control of the car and hit a tree. Carromero and another passenger, Jens Aron Modig, of the Swedish Christian Democratic Youth League, were both slightly injured.

He is reportedly being held in custody at a Havana prison.