"There are those who detain people, put them in prison or execute them supposedly in the name of the revolution... and others who do it supposedly in the name of freedom," he told journalists in Madrid, without naming names.

Gonzalez was referring to three men who were summarily executed in Cuba on Friday after they tried to hijack a ferry.

Gonzalez, a trained lawyer who served as prime minister in the 1980s, went on to say that the United States was responsible for what is happening in Iraq and that they were bound to keep order in the country just as much as they were prohibited from controlling it resources.

SPACE.WIRE