You know how it goes: as soon as your diplomats get expelled, its finally a humanitarian crisis! European lawmakers are finally urging their countries to get tough on Castro. This, of course, after they lifted sanctions on the regime earlier in the year.

Two former Spanish senators, Isabel San Baldomero and Rosa Lopez Garnica, were expelled, as were lawmakers from Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic.

Arnold Vaatz, a German lawmaker who was expelled from Cuba on Friday, called for the European Union to take a stronger stand against Cuba.

ééWith its decision to lift (diplomatic) sanctions against Cuba, the European Union has made itself the accomplice of Fidel Castro’s government,” Vaatz was quoted as saying by the Leipziger Volkszeitung daily.

Six Poles – three journalists, a human rights worker and two students – and an Italian journalist also were ordered to leave the country. Spain said a deputy for the regional Catalan Convergence and Unity party also was threatened with expulsion and was at the Havana airport Saturday.
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Vaatz, the German lawmaker who had planned to attend the dissident assembly in Havana, complained that the Europeans had agreed to Cuba’s wish that they break off contacts with dissidents, ensuring that their plight went unnoticed.

ééThat was what I wanted to break through, and it succeeded,” Vaatz said.

In Rome, a senior official in Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition urged the government to get tougher with Cuba.

ééWe need to do it in spite of economic interests that might suggest a more conciliatory attitude,” Gustavo Selva, the head of a parliamentary foreign affairs commission and a member of the National Alliance government party, was quoted as saying by Italy’s ANSA news agency. ééThere’s no negotiating over freedom.”

Mariano Rajoy, leader of Spain’s opposition Popular Party, criticized the government’s handling of Cuba.

ééWhere is it written that the Spanish prime minister must make himself popular with a tyrant as he yet again proved yesterday, like Fidel Castro, or with someone who’s unbalanced, like the president of Venezuela?” he said.

Well said. It is unlikely that the minority of legislators in Europe, the ones who support isolating dictators, will be able to lead the continent toward the right direction. The situation also brings to light just exactly how well sanctions work when they are not readily enforced by the free world. In the case of Cuba, Hugo Chavez willfully props up the dictator with a rich flow of oil money, virtually guaranteeing that despite any sanctions from Europe of the U.S., he will be able to continue his reign. Until he dies, that is, unless those rumors about him being a robot are true.

Meanwhile, it looks at if the only people willing to stand up to Castro, who can do something about it directly, come from the inside. Dissident opposition leaders inside Cuba are wrapping up their first ever pro-democracy meeting. Gateway Pundit is rounding up the news quite nicely. Make sure to check out Val Prieto at Babalu Blog, who is a Cuban dissident on the stateside fighting for freedom in his homeland.