The Cocktail Wars were a series of diplomatic conflicts between the
European Union and
Cuba. It began 2003 when EU member states invited
dissidents to official
receptions at their Cuban
embassies. This sparked Cuba to cut off
diplomatic relations with the EU. A compromise was eventually reached.
Beginning
The conflict started in 2003 after European embassies in Cuba made a policy to invite dissidents to
diplomatic
Diplomatics (in American English, and in most anglophone countries), or diplomatic (in British English), is a scholarly discipline centred on the critical analysis of documents: especially, historical documents. It focuses on the conventions, p ...
receptions in the Cuban capital
Havana.
[Gibbs, Stephen (4 January 2005]
Havana halts EU 'cocktail wars'
BBC News All EU countries pledge to do this on their
national day celebrations, such as to the
French embassy on
Bastille Day[Gibbs, Stephen (15 July 2003]
Cuba's cocktail wars
BBC News and to the
British embassy
This is a list of diplomatic missions of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, excluding honorary consulates. The UK has one of the largest global networks of diplomatic missions. UK diplomatic missions to capitals of other Com ...
for the
Queen's birthday
The King's Official Birthday (alternatively the Queen's Official Birthday when the monarch is female) is the selected day in the United Kingdom and most Commonwealth realms on which the birthday of the monarch is officially celebrated in those ...
.
This move was in protest at Cuba's decision to imprison 75 dissidents and to execute 3
hijackers. The
Cuban government, which calls its dissidents "mercenaries in the pay of the United States", took this as an insult and cut off almost all diplomatic relations with all European Union
ambassador
An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...
s and their embassies
despite few dissidents willing to risk turning up to the events.
Agreement
In 2004, Cuba released 14 of the dissidents and an EU
working group on
Latin America recommended the policy be changed instead to promoting more discreet contacts with dissidents. After 20 months of tense relations,
Brussels compromised by stating it would not ask
Cubans to its diplomatic functions in future, be they dissidents or
government ministers, rendering receptions useless as a diplomatic tool.
[Castle, Stephen (1 February 2005]
Truce declared in 'cocktail wars' between EU and Cuba
'' The Independent''
This was welcomed by Havana and on 4 January 2005 Cuba normalised relations with
Austria,
France,
Germany,
Greece,
Italy,
Portugal,
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
and the
United Kingdom. It had already normalised relations with
Spain who led calls for normalised relations. Despite the agreement not to invite dissidents, the EU did make clear it would seek to strengthen contacts with
opposition groups in the country.
Criticism
However, the
Netherlands and the
Czech Republic were included as they had supported a hard line against
Castro's regime, as did many other post-
Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
EU states. Cuban dissidents also saw the compromise as the EU backing down over a very small act of
protest.
The
Czech government
The Government of the Czech Republic ( cz, Vláda České republiky) exercises executive power in the Czech Republic. The members of the government are the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic (Chairman of the Government), the deputy prime min ...
stated it would ignore the agreement, saying it would invite whoever it wanted.
Poland made similar remarks.
See also
*
Cuba–European Union relations
References
External links
* https://web.archive.org/web/20050302112106/http://www.euobserver.com/?sid=9&aid=18074
{{Foreign relations of the European Union 2
Diplomatic incidents
Foreign relations of the European Union
Cuba–European Union relations