SLOVAK MFA EXPRESSES DISPLEASURE WITH CUBA OVER

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRATISLAVA 000595 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/02/2012 TAGS: PHUM PREL CU LO SUBJECT: SLOVAK MFA EXPRESSES DISPLEASURE WITH CUBA OVER ELECTION OBSERVER DEPORTATION REF: HAVANA 01001 Classified By: Ambassador Rodolphe M. Vallee for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d ). ¶1. (C) On October 29, Ambassador Roman Buzek, Director General for Political Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, called in the Cuban Ambassador to Slovakia to express displeasure with the Cuban government's actions in detaining and deporting Slovak election observer Peter Novotny on October 22 (see reftel). According to the Slovak desk officer for Latin America who was in the meeting, Buzek emphasized two points: 1) the Cuban government did not allow Novotny to contact the Slovak embassy, and 2) the Cuban government did not contact the Slovak embassy until several hours after he had been deported. The Cuban ambassador did not directly respond to Buzek's concerns, and consistently pushed the line that Novotny had broken Cuban law by meeting with dissidents while on a tourist visa. Buzek did not take a position on whether or not Novotny had broken Cuban law. ¶2. (C) Poloff met with Novotny on October 24, the day after he returned from Cuba. He was in good spirits and said that he was unsurprised that he had been deported since Cuban police had clearly been tailing him since his arrival. Novotny was upset that Cuban police had taken his cell phone and never returned it, but said that Cuban police were otherwise cordial and that he had suffered no physical or significant verbal mistreatment. Since Novotny does not speak Spanish, he was interrogated for only about 45 minutes while his Spanish-speaking Czech colleague was questioned for much longer. After deporting Novotny, Cuban police sent his luggage on a flight the following day, which Novotny was able to find in Charles de Gaulle airport, intact. VALLEE