Batlle took this step after Cuban president Fidel Castro publicly condemned the Uruguayan president for sponsoring an imperialist-backed resolution that was approved by a United Nations commission meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. The resolution is an annual exercise organized by Washington that condemns Cuba for supposed human rights abuses. Upon breaking consular relations he declared the Cuban ambassador to the country, José Alvarez Portela, to be "persona non grata."

As Alvarez Portela made his way to the airport in Montevideo to exit the country on May 4, noted an article in the May 12 Granma International, "an impassioned crowd shouting ‘Viva Cuba!’" accompanied him on his journey. "The people declare him ‘persona grata,’" was the apt title of the Granma article.

"A heterogeneous human throng in the hundreds of thousands, composed of members of various organizations--social, solidarity with Cuba, the Uruguayan trade union federation (PIT-CNT), the Broad Front and other progressive political groups--created a whole amalgam of banners and voices on that Saturday morning, May 4, in a lively demonstration of support for the Cuban people," stated the Granma article. "The same scene was repeated for over two hours."

In his departing remarks, Alvarez Portela took note that "the bulk of the Uruguayan population is opposed to the position taken by their government in relation to the resolution condemning Cuba in Geneva, and that should come as no surprise. The Uruguayans have always been very much in solidarity with our population, and despite the economic problems they are confronting today, they once again expressed their friendship and support for the Cuban people."

In response to this outpouring of support, Cuban foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque, in comments greeting Alvarez Portela at the Havana airport, emphasized that the action taken by Uruguay’s president "will not diminish Cuba’s solidarity with that Latin American country."  
 
 
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