Cuban security forces have evicted 21 young people occupying the grounds of the Mexican Embassy in Havana, where they had been holed up since Wednesday. Unarmed Cuban police carried out the operation early Friday, at the Mexican government's request, after the Cubans refused to leave on their own.
The government said in a statement Friday that the operation went off "without incident." The statement did not mention where the cubans had been taken, or if they would face charges for their actions. The Cubans had taken refuge at the Mexican Embassy in Havana late Wednesday after ramming a stolen bus through the front gate.
Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda said the trouble started when a U.S. government-funded radio station in Miami, Radio Marti, took out of context some comments he made recently at the opening of a Mexican cultural center in Miami.
The foreign minister was quoted as saying the doors of Mexico's embassy in Havana are open to Cubans. But Mr. Castaneda says he declared the doors of the Miami cultural center open to all. The Cuban government accused Radio Marti of what it called a gross provocation and said it manipulated the foreign minister's comments. Radio Marti director Salvador Lew said Radio Marti did nothing more than transmit the declarations of the Mexican foreign minister in his own voice.