Loyola de Palacio, the Spanish vice-president of the European Commission, was on Friday quoted by press reports as saying she hoped Cuban leader Fidel Castro would die as soon as possible.
”I hope he dies one day, and I hope to see it,” transport and energy commissioner de Palacio told Spanish journalists Thursday in Brussels.
De Palacio made her comments after Cuba’s 78-year-old leader fell after giving a speech, fracturing an arm and a leg on Wednesday.
”We all hope he will die as soon as possible. I’m not saying he should be killed, I’m saying he should die. I do not desire anyone’s death, but the only solution [for Cuba] would be that Castro disappears,” de Palacio said.
”Castro is a sinister dictator who has many deaths and tortured people behind him,” she added.
The commissioner also criticised Spain’s Socialist government for attempting to soften the EU policy towards Cuba, describing Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s Cabinet as ”not very serious”.
De Palacio was about to leave Brussels to return to Spain, where she will head a foreign policy organ within the opposition conservative Popular Party. – Sapa-DPA