HAVANA -- (AP) -- The U.S. Interests Section, which has been a focal point for
 the communist government's demands that a 6-year-old boy be returned to Cuba,
 is the American diplomatic mission on the island.

 Full diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba were severed in
 January 1961, forcing the closure of the U.S. Embassy in Havana and the Cuban
 Embassy in Washington.

 For the next 16 years, American interests in Cuba were represented by the Swiss
 Embassy. The U.S. Interests Section opened on Sept. 1, 1977, in the seven-story
 former U.S. Embassy building on Havana's main coastal highway.

 The Interests Section is officially part of, and its diplomats are accredited to, the
 Swiss Embassy.

 Although not a full embassy itself, it is among the largest foreign missions in
 Havana, with an estimated 20 U.S. officers and secretaries, a sizable staff in the
 consular section and a small Marines guard.

 The mission performs many of the same tasks an American Embassy normally
 would.

 Most of the Interests Section's activities revolve around migration from Cuba to the
 United States. It has issued more than 100,000 immigrant and refugee travel
 documents since 1994.

 The chief of mission is Vicki Huddleston, who took over the post in the fall after
 serving as ambassador to Madagascar and deputy assistant secretary of state for
 Africa.

                     Copyright 1999 Miami Herald