PANAMA CITY, Aug 24 (AFP) - Panama has asked Cuba's ambassador to leave, Panama's foreign minister said Tuesday, escalating a diplomatic row over a rumored pardon for Cubans convicted of plotting to assassinate Cuba's president.
"We have asked the ambassador to leave the country," Foreign Minister Harmodio Arias said.
"This is a diplomatic measure, but without breaking relations," Arias said, after meeting with Cuban Ambassador Carlos Zamora.
Panama on Monday recalled its ambassador to Cuba, in response to Havana's threat to break bilateral relations, should President Mireya Moscoso pardon a man convicted in a plot to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Cuba threatened to break off relations if Moscoso went ahead with a plan to pardon anti-Castro leader Luis Posada Carriles and three accomplices who were convicted in April of trying to kill Castro in Panama in November 2000. All are Cuban citizens.
A Panamanian court sentenced Posada Carriles, 76, to eight years in prison for having planned to kill Castro at a 2000 summit of Latin American and Iberian leaders in Panama.
Accomplice Gaspar Jimenez Escobedo also received an eight-year sentence, while accomplices Guillermo Novo Sampol and Pedro Remon received seven years each.
Cuba's foreign ministry said on August 14 that anti-Castro news media in Miami had repeatedly commented that Moscoso would pardon the four Cuban prisoners in Panama and that she would make the decision between August 15 and 30.
"The historical responsibility and the consequences from this insulting decision will fall entirely on President Mireya Moscoso and her government," the Cuban foreign ministry statement said.