Claims of spying at U.N., in D.C. heighten tensions with Havana

  BY TIM JOHNSON AND NANCY SAN MARTIN

  WASHINGTON - The Bush administration announced Tuesday that it is expelling 14 Cuban diplomats for spying, an extraordinarily large number that will further inflame tensions between Washington and Havana.

  The State Department said the Cuban diplomats -- posted both at the Cuban mission to the United Nations and in Washington -- were given 10 days to leave the country.

  An administration official knowledgeable about the issue asserted that the Cuban officials were involved to varying degrees in monitoring and surveillance activities, and efforts to recruit U.S. civilian and military employees.

  State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said those ordered to leave the United States include a ''range of Cuban diplomats,'' although he did not specify their
  diplomatic ranks.

  ''You're all familiar with the record of espionage by the Cuban regime against the United States. It's a long record,'' Reeker said.

  Cuba did not immediately issue a statement or retaliate with tit-for-tat expulsions.

  Tuesday's action marked the largest mass expulsion of Cuban diplomats in more than four decades of tensions with the Castro government. Previous expulsions involved far fewer diplomats each time, usually one to four envoys.

  ''You just don't throw out 14 diplomats unless you send a very strong signal that you are very displeased,'' said a high-ranking U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "This political decision went up to the highest levels of the government.''

  PRESIDENT APPROVED

  Asked how high, the official said: ``The president was informed and gave the final OK.''

  The names of the seven officials booted from their posts at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington were not released Tuesday, but U.S. authorities said it did not include the section's chief, Dagoberto Rodríguez.

  The Washington Post reported that the most senior diplomat among those expelled is Cosme Torres, deputy chief of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington. Press spokesman Juan Hernández was also among the seven.

  The highest-ranking diplomat expelled from Cuba's U.N. mission was Adrián Francisco Delgado González, a counselor listed as No. 3 in the latest U.N. diplomatic directory. Another counselor, Alfredo José Pérez Rivero, listed as No. 5, was also ordered to leave, U.S. officials said.

  The last expulsion of Cuban diplomats came last November, when the administration ordered out two Cuban diplomats from Washington and two others based at the United Nations. Those expulsions were linked to the federal espionage conviction of Ana Belén Montes, a former senior analyst on Cuba at the Defense Intelligence Agency. Montes, who is serving a 25-year prison term, is the highest-level Cuban spy ever caught in the United States.

  Both the United States and Cuba are believed to use their respective diplomatic missions for spying, although U.S. counter-intelligence officials say the Cubans are
  particularly aggressive.

  A former Cuban chief of mission at the United Nations in 1992-93, Alcibiades Hidalgo, who defected to the United States last year, said in a telephone interview that most of the Cubans in his mission were spies.

  ''There must have no less than 35 [diplomats] there and of them 75 percent were dedicated to intelligence activities,'' Hidalgo said.

  A first secretary at the Cuban mission in New York, Eva Silot Bravo, and her husband disappeared in early April and are believed to have sought U.S. asylum.

  Another administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the espionage activities of the Cuban diplomats were monitored by the FBI, and brought to the attention of the State Department. The FBI had documented incidents of spying beginning three years ago and lasting until early this year, the official said.

  The expulsions represent a significant dent in the current diplomatic force for Cuba. The latest U.N. directory lists 37 accredited Cuban diplomats, led by Ambassador Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla. In Washington, the Cuban Interests Section is authorized to maintain 26 diplomats.

  The expelled diplomats could be replaced with new envoys from Cuba, U.S. officials said.

  Some 51 U.S. diplomats are stationed at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, the largest diplomatic mission in the city.

  TENSIONS SOARING

  Tensions between Havana and Washington have soared in the past two months.

  In a massive crackdown on dissent in Cuba that began in mid-March, 75 pro-democracy activists and journalists have been arrested and sentenced to prison for terms up to 28 years.

  In a series of speeches, President Fidel Castro has accused U.S. diplomats in Havana of engaging in subversive activities and has threatened to shut down the U.S.
  Interests Section, which sits on the Havana waterfront.

  Some analysts speculated that the expulsions could lead to severing of all diplomatic ties if Cuba responded with ousters of their own. Cuba has accused diplomats at the U.S. Interests Section of engaging in subversive activities and has specifically blamed the top diplomat, James Cason, of working with government opponents in an attempt to dismantle the socialist system.

  ''If they throw out Cason, we'll probably throw out the head of their interests section. If they throw out more, we'll throw out more,'' the senior U.S. official said.

  ``But I don't think Castro is going to risk the migration agreement by closing down the Interests Section. He would not have an escape valve and the situation in Cuba is boiling.''

  Bush administration officials criticize Cuba for harassing U.S. diplomats in Havana while Cuban officials working in the United States have greater freedom to travel and engage in lobbying efforts.

  In March, Washington proposed dropping a Clinton-era ''people-to-people'' policy aimed at increasing contacts between ordinary Americans and Cubans. Under the policy, the U.S. government granted licenses to academics, athletes, scientists and others to travel to Cuba for exchange programs.

  The State Department has said it is reviewing all tools related to Cuba policy, and tougher measures could include more scrutiny for personnel services sought by Cuban diplomats, though they denied that those measures have already been implemented.

  Herald staff writer Andres Oppenheimer contributed to this report.