Basque government visits Cuba to analyze the situation
of the SPRI office after the detention of its director. 

VITORIA, April 7 (Europa Press) 

A CubaNews translation by Will Reissner.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.

The acting spokesperson of the Basque government, Miren Azkarate, explained today that a delegation from the Basque administration has gone to Cuba where it held a meeting with representatives of Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment to “analyze” the present situation of the office of the Society for Industrial Promotion and Reconversion (SPRI) in that country after the February 14 arrest of its representative, Conrado Hernández.

In the regular press conference following the meeting of the regional council of government, Azkarate explained that the delegation from the Basque government was headed by the regional vice-minister of Industry, Jose Ignacio Zudaire, and the director general of the SPRI, Mauri Lazkano, and met with representatives of the government of Cuba.

The spokesperson indicated that the SPRI delegate in Cuba, Conrado Hernández, “is the subject of a legal investigation that has no connection with the activities he carried out as representative of SPRI.”

In addition, he noted that the Basque delegation “has confirmed the government of Cuba’s willingness to continue all the avenues of collaboration with the Basque government that it has maintained up to now,” because “the government of Cuba has a positive assessment of the work carried out by the office of the SPRI, believing that the Basque companies on site there have an important role both in terms of trade and production.”

Finally, he stated that the Basque government also informed the government of Cuba of its intention to name “in the near future” an official to take charge of the office so that it may continue offering its services to the Basque companies, “which is what the companies have asked of the Basque government.”