How Spain's Aznar Turned the Tables on Castro

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has become Cuban leader Fidel Castro's favorite bete noir, much to Washington's delight. While Castro has railed against the United States and, in recent years, the Bush administration, Aznar has quietly achieved a fundamental shift in Madrid's longtime foreign policy toward Havana — weakening Castro's influence with the European Union in the process. As a result, for the first time in decades Washington and Brussels appear to be nearly on the same page in terms of pressuring Castro to allow democratic and economic reforms in Cuba that, if implemented, inevitably would hasten the collapse of his authoritarian regime.