After a small circulation weekly published a report claiming that a member of Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s security detail defected this last weekend during the Caribbean Summit, Santo Domingo has been abuzz with speculation about the possible repercussions for U.S.-Dominican and Cuban-Dominican relations. The weekly claimed that one of Fidel’s security officers presented himself to the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo seeking political asylum. Attempts by Dominican news media to confirm the story have been stonewalled by the American embassy, which refuses to either confirm or deny the story. Cuban diplomats claim to know of no such defection, and the Dominican Foreign Ministry says that it has not been notified of any such case. If the defector does indeed exist and is taking refuge within the American Embassy, it puts the Dominican Government in an awkward position. The DR would not wish to anger the U.S. by refusing safe passage for the defector out of the country, but nor would it wish to sour the steadily improving relations it has with Cuba.
