Relations between Cuba and Mexico decline sharply after Mexico, charging that Cuba has meddled in its affairs, says it is expelling Cuba's ambassador and recalling its own.

BY NANCY SAN MARTIN AND ANDRES OPPENHEIMER

A diplomatic brouhaha over the extradition of a Mexican businessman from Cuba escalated Sunday with the announcement by Mexico that it will recall its ambassador from Cuba and expel the Cuban ambassador from Mexico.

Mexico took action after officials concluded that the communist-run government of President Fidel Castro had interfered directly in the country's internal affairs, and authorities discovered that two key members of the Cuban Communist Party had entered on diplomatic passports and plotted with leftist Mexico City politicians to discredit the government of President Vicente Fox.

''Because of the Cuban government's interference in our internal affairs, the Mexican government has decided to lower the level of bilateral relations with Cuba to the level of chargé d'affaires,'' Alan Naum, Mexico's foreign ministry spokesman, told The Herald late Sunday in a telephone interview.

''This does not mean a break in diplomatic relations,'' Naum added, ``but the political dialogue is over.''

Relations between Cuba and Mexico, after decades of warm and friendly ties, have become increasingly tense under President Fox and his conservative National Action Party. Mexico voted to condemn Havana's human rights record at a recent United Nations meeting in Geneva, drawing an angry response from Castro Saturday.

CUBAN RESPONSE

''It hurts deeply that so much prestige and influence, won in Latin America and the world for its unreproachable international policies emerged from a true and profound revolution, have been turned into ashes,'' Castro said during a speech to mark May Day festivities in Havana. ``What was more humiliating for Mexico was that the news of its vote in Geneva, on the 17th as well as the 22nd [of April], was announced in Washington.''

Mexican officials identified the Cubans who visited Mexico without official notice as José Antonio Arbesú Fraga and Pedro Miguel Lobaina Jiménez de Castro, members of Cuba's Communist Party Central Committee. They arrived in Mexico April 3 and met with unidentified Mexico City officials.

Details of those meetings were not revealed, but the event gave Fox the chance to lash back at Cuba for recent remarks made by Cuba's Foreign Ministry on an ongoing political scandal in Mexico that rocked that nation.

Mexico gave the respective ambassadors 48 hours to leave both countries, said Mexico's Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez. Mexico also immediately expelled the head of the Cuban embassies political section, Orlando Silva Fors. Mexican officials said he participated in the meetings alongside the two visiting Cuban officials.

The growing strain in diplomatic relations came last week when Havana extradited Carlos Ahumada, who was videotaped passing large wads of cash to Mexico City government officials.

POLITICAL BARBS

The statement by Cuba's Foreign Ministry irked the Mexican government because it implied a political persecution of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), which governs Mexico City.

''Cuba's investigation shows that the events linked to [Ahumada] and the public scandal unleashed . . . have an unquestionable political connotation and affect in one way or another public officials and authorities from the government as well as other political personalities of Mexico,'' Cuba's statement said.

The conservative Fox administration fired off its own criticism of Cuba and demanded a ''clear and concise'' response from Havana on its reason for making such a judgment. Mexican Energy Minister Felipe Calderón said last week that Castro's government lacks the credibility and moral authority to have an opinion. He said the Cuban government falls ''short on confidence'' because it has jailed dozens of dissidents and then ``gives itself the luxury of stepping on the liberty and dignity of so many people.''

Cuba, meanwhile, said it had not received an ''official note'' from Mexico.

SCANDAL'S ROOTS

Ahumada, 39, an owner of two soccer teams and a major stockholder in the newspaper El Independiente, fled to Cuba in February after Mexican television stations aired videos showing him handing cash to PRD members.

Ahumada has admitted making the videotape but said he did it because Mexico City officials were extorting him. The tape led to the release of other videos showing officials in compromising positions and touched off a series of scandals that embarrassed and angered the administration of Mexico City Mayor Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, a PRD member and the leading candidate to replace Fox in 2006 elections.