Official Challenges U.S. to Show Evidence of Spying, Calls Action Prelude to Attack

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer

Cuba yesterday called the U.S. expulsion of 14 Cuban diplomats for alleged spying an "outrageous slander" and said it was part of a conspiracy to create a pretext
for a U.S. attack on the island.

"We challenge the U.S. government to present one single piece of evidence of any illegal activity" carried out by any Cuban officials in the United States, said
Dagoberto Rodriguez, the head of Cuba's diplomatic mission here. "They know that they are lying like professional Pinocchios . . . because they monitor us
physically and electronically 24 hours a day."

The Bush administration this week charged that the diplomats -- seven at the Cuban Interests Section here and seven at Cuba's mission to the United Nations in
New York -- had engaged in "activities outside their official capacity," although it provided no details. Those on the list, including Rodriguez's deputy, Cosme Torres,
and the No. 3 official in New York, were given 10 days to leave.

Rodriguez said at a news conference that his government, "of course, will comply" with the expulsion order, and would "take all the time necessary" to determine its
own response. In most cases, diplomatic expulsions are met with reciprocal action, although Cuba did not expel any U.S. diplomats when four of its officials were
asked to leave this country last fall.

Rodriguez said that the Bush administration is trying "to continue the escalation of tensions" that have characterized U.S.-Cuban relations in recent months. The goal,
he said, is to force the closing of the interests sections that the two governments operate in each other's countries, under the auspices of the Swiss Embassy, in the
absence of full diplomatic relations.

Closing the missions, Rodriguez said, would disrupt the immigration process put in place in 1996 after an exodus of Cuban "rafters" trying to reach the United States,
which processes U.S. residence visas for as many as 20,000 Cubans each year. Disruption of the agreements, he said, "could provoke" another migration crisis that
"would justify [U.S.] aggression against Cuba." The two governments are scheduled to hold their next twice-yearly meeting on immigration matters in New York next
month.

Although he did not provide details, Rodriguez said that his government had been specifically warned in recent days, through the U.S. Interests Section in Havana,
that the United States would consider a new wave of illegal migration an "act of war."

The diplomatic expulsions came as a bipartisan group in Congress introduced new legislation in the House and Senate to remove U.S. restrictions on American travel
to Cuba. Although similar legislation has passed both chambers with large majorities in the past, none has been enacted into law. The legislation is "an effort to bring
some sanity to U.S. foreign policy as it relates to Cuba," Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said at a news conference. Baucus is co-sponsoring the bill with Sen. Mike
Enzi (R-Wyo.).

The administration has argued that allowing Americans to travel to Cuba would perpetuate the communist government by supplying it with much-needed hard
currency. Sponsors of the measure, citing U.S. travel to other communist countries, including China and Vietnam, have said that flooding Cuba with Americans is the
best way to undermine Cuba's government.

                                               © 2003