EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell upbraided the bloc’s ambassador to Cuba for his “unwise” and “regrettable” decision to sign a controversial letter to U.S. President Joe Biden — but he won’t sack the envoy.
In a letter to MEPs dated Thursday, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO, Borrell wrote: “There is no doubt that … Ambassador [Alberto] Navarro has committed two major public communication/judgment failures in recent weeks,” referring to both the letter and Navarro’s recent comments incorrectly describing Cuba’s communist regime.
Navarro came under fire last month for co-signing an open letter that urged Biden to “personally take executive action” to lift business and travel restrictions on Cuba. The move sparked outrage among senior MEPs and other lawmakers dealing with Latin American relations, who said it was inappropriate for Navarro to make such demands of the U.S. president. They urged Borrell to fire the ambassador.
Criticism of Navarro’s actions increased after the ambassador gave an interview to news outlet CubaNet in which he said he “of course” does “not consider Cuba to be a dictatorship.”
In his letter to MEPs, Borrell called the ambassador’s actions “regrettable” and said he had summoned him to Brussels to explain himself.
“Ambassador Navarro has admitted his mistakes and presented his deep apologies,” the foreign policy chief wrote.
Yet Borrell made clear he’s not willing to fire the ambassador. Instead, he stressed that lawmakers “must also have an understanding for the difficult circumstances many [EU diplomats] are confronted with on a daily basis and act in a proportionate and fair manner when they commit mistakes.”
Borrell also wrote that Navarro had “acknowledged that it is not within the scope of his functions as a diplomatic representative of the European Union” to sign such a letter, “even less so when they are addressed to the leader of a third country.”
And, Borrell noted, “the main message contained in the letter is in line with the EU’s longstanding position requesting the lifting of the US embargo against Cuba,” even though that fact was not “in any way an excuse” for Navarro’s actions. Borrell himself publicly criticized the U.S. embargo during a press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last month.
However, the MEPs’ criticism of the letter to Biden went beyond the issue of the U.S. embargo. They pointed out that the letter was written in a sharp and demanding tone, and urged the U.S. to “stop being a hostile neighbor” to Cuba and to “stop interfering in our domestic affairs.” Borrell did not mention these issues in his reply.
Addressing the ambassador’s comments about Cuba not being a dictatorship, Borrell wrote: “Navarro accepts that he misspoke … on the nature of the Cuban political system and in particular deeply regrets his response to the direct question on whether Cuba can be considered a dictatorship. It is clear that Cuba is a one-party regime, where political pluralism and fundamental freedoms are not respected.”
In a reaction to the foreign policy chief’s letter, the European Parliament’s vice president in charge of Latin America relations, Czech MEP Dita Charanzová, said she welcomed the “recognition of the serious errors made.”
“It is, however, disappointing that there has been no public statement and correction from Ambassador Navarro himself,” she said. “His words and actions have seriously damaged our policy towards Cuba, and it is impossible for me to imagine him continuing in his current post in Havana.”
