Cuba, Mexico restore ambassadors, spat cools

Mexico and Cuba agreed on Sunday to send their ambassadors back to each others capitals, easing the worst dispute between the once-close allies since President Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.

The dispute over Cuba's human rights record and Mexico's close ties to the United States led both countries in early May to the point where they appeared on the verge of breaking off relations altogether.

Mexican Foreign Minister Ernesto Derbez and Cuban counterpart Felipe Perez Roque made the announcement at a Havana news conference after a meeting for which Derbez flew into town.

"July 26th the ambassadors will be back in their respective posts," Perez Roque said.

The date marks the start of Castro's revolution and is an important Cuban holiday.

President Vicente Fox's government expelled Cuba's envoy and withdrew its ambassador from Havana on May 2, charging Cuba was meddling in Mexican politics after two Communist party members met with opposition politicians in Mexico.

That followed a May Day speech in which President Fidel Castro, angered by Mexico's condemnation of Cuba's human right record at a United Nations hearing, said Mexico's influence in the world had been "turned into ashes" by its friendship with Washington.

The two countries foreign ministers had remained in contact since the dispute in person and by phone.

Perez Roque and Derbez made clear that while diplomatic relations were normalized, differences remained.

"Between friends there can be differences around some issues which they can discuss ... What we did was focus on issues we could work together on," Derbez said.

Derbez said Mexico would prioritize economic relations, in particular settling Cuba's $400 million debt to Mexico's foreign trade bank, Bancomext, an underlying source of tension between the two countries which has played a role in a 50 percent drop in trade to just over $200 million last year.

Mexico was the only Latin American country that never broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba at U.S. insistence during the Cold War.

But relations have deteriorated since Mexico joined the North American Free Trade Agreement and drew closer to Washington, particularly under Fox, whose government has been outspoken concerning the human rights situation on the island.

Source: Agencies