PANAMA: CASTRO AND FLORES CLASH AT SUMMIT

(19 Nov 2000) Spanish/Nat A dispute over a resolution against terrorism spiralled into a squabble at the close of the Ibero-American summit on Saturday. The leaders of Cuba and El Salvador hurled allegations, drenched in civil war bitterness. Salvadoran President Francisco Flores accused Cuba’s Fidel Castro of involvement in El Salvador’s civil war. Castro expressed anger that the anti-terrorism measure sponsored by El Salvador and Mexico expressed sympathy for Spain, but with no mention of Cuba. Flores accused Castro of involvement in the deaths of “tens of thousands“ of Salvadorans during El Salvador’s civil war, which ended in 1992. Castro admitted training rebels from many countries, saying “inter-revolutionary support is a tradition,“ but insisted he had stopped such aid when other countries stopped trying to isolate Cuba. Castro claimed that several nations had cooperated with or failed to stop those trying