Arias met Cuban Ambassador Carlos Zamora Tuesday morning and handed him a note ordering him to leave. Panama recalled its ambassador from Havana on Monday.
The four men jailed include three Miami exiles and Luis Posada Carriles, an El Salvador resident labeled by Havana as its most wanted terrorist. They were arrested in 2000 in Panama City after President Fidel Castro, visiting for a heads-of-state summit, alleged at a news conference that the exiles were plotting to kill him.
They were cleared of the murder charges and possession of 33 pounds of explosives but were convicted in April of endangering the public safety and given sentences of up to eight years in prison. Posada and the three Miamians -- Pedro Remón, Guillermo Novo and Gaspar Jiménez -- claimed they were in Panama to help a Cuban general who was to accompany Castro and supposedly had planned to defect.
Arias said Cuba had made ''offensive'' allegations that Moscoso was in cahoots with Miami exiles to free the four men. On Sunday, Cuba issued a strongly worded statement threatening to break relations if the four convicts were pardoned.***
Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., the sponsor of the initiative, blamed election-year politics for his decision to withdraw the amendment.
''Unfortunately, the timing of this legislation this year does not lend itself to a reasoned and thoughtful debate about our policy toward Cuba,'' he said.
The setback marks a shift from previous years, when a growing number of lawmakers has backed initiatives to roll back travel restrictions. A similar amendment passed the House and Senate last year, but was later dropped in a conference committee under a veto threat from the White House. ***