Associated Press

MEXICO CITY - The ambassadors for Cuba and Mexico returned to their posts Sunday, marking the end of a 3-month diplomatic spat between Fidel Castro's government and its once strongest ally in Latin America.

The rift climaxed May 2 when Mexico asked Cuban Ambassador Jorge Bolanos to leave, accusing Cuba's Communist Party of holding unauthorized political meetings in Mexico.

"I am supremely happy to return to Mexico, after a brief and involuntary absence," Bolanos said.

"Cuba and Mexico are two nations that geography made neighbors, and that our histories and heroes, both Cuban and Mexican, have united forever."

Mexican Ambassador Roberta Lajous Vargas returned to Havana on Sunday "with the aim of working toward a new vision of the future," Mexico's Foreign Relations Department said in a press statement.

The envoys returned to their posts on the 51 anniversary of a failed rebel attack that gave a name to Castro's cause - the July 26 Movement - and laid the groundwork for the Cuban leader's victory over the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.

Mexico was the only Latin American country to maintain ties with Havana after the 1959 Cuban revolution and had long been the island's strongest ally in the region.

Relations soured after President Vicente Fox took office in 2000 and criticized Cuba's human rights record. In 2002, Mexico supported a resolution of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva condemning Cuba.

In May, Cuba said it had videos proving a Mexican business mogul arrested in Havana was part of a Fox government onspiracy to smear leftist Mexican politicians. The government denied that, and said Cuba's Communist Party was holding unauthorized political meetings in Mexico.