Nicaragua defends appointment of Cuban exile to delegation

Published Wednesday, April 9, 1997, in the Miami Herald

Nicaragua defends appointment of Cuban exile to delegation

GENEVA -- (EFE) -- Nicaragua on Tuesday defended its choice of a Cuban exile as a member of its official delegation to a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Commission that is considering a report on human rights abuses in Cuba.

Alvaro Montenegro Mallona, Nicaragua's ambassador to the U.N. site in Geneva, said the appointment of Luis Zuñiga, human rights director of the Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation, is a matter ``that only concerns Nicaraguans.''

The unusual inclusion of a foreigner in the Nicaraguan delegation has been sharply attacked by Cuba and widely commented on among other delegates.

``If this sets a precedent, then let it be set,'' Montenegro said. ``Nicaragua is a sovereign nation, free and independent, and it can choose the human rights advisers it considers appropriate on Cuba or any other subject.''

The Cuban delegation issued a statement calling Zuñiga ``a notorious Cuban terrorist'' who left the island illegally Dec. 31, 1973, through the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay.

A biographical sketch released by the Havana delegation, which Zuñiga has not challenged, says he took part in a CIA infiltration mission to Cuba in 1974 and was arrested there with two rifles and a quantity of explosives. It says he served 14 years of a 25-year sentence before being released for humanitarian reasons.