- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
United States has expelled four Cuban diplomats, two from Washington and
two from the United Nations in New York, the State Department said on Wednesday.
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- The diplomats at the Cuban interests section in Washington,
named as first secretaries Oscar Redondo Toledo and Gustavo Machin Gomez,
were given until Nov. 11 to leave the country, spokesman Richard Boucher
told a daily briefing.
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- The United States declared them persona non grata in
response to the activities of Ana Belen Montes, a former U.S. intelligence
officer who was sentenced to 25 years in jail in October for spying for
Cuba, he added.
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- He said the diplomats at the Cuban mission at the United
Nations, who were not named, "have been requested to leave the United
States for engaging in activities deemed to be harmful to the United States
outside their official capacity" -- apparently a euphemism for spying.
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- Boucher did not say whether the Washington diplomats
played any part in the Belen Montes case or whether the expulsion was merely
a punitive measure by the United States.
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- Belen Montes, who analyzed intelligence about Cuba for
the Defense Intelligence Agency, has admitted she spied for Cuba for 17
years for ideological reasons.
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- A U.S. citizen of Puerto Rican descent, she told the
judge she opposed U.S. government policy toward Cuba and wanted to help
the communist island nation defend itself.
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- The United States last expelled a Cuban diplomat in February
2000, in connection with the arrest of U.S. immigration official Mariano
Faget, who was later jailed for five years for disclosing official secrets
to Cuba.
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- The United States and Cuba do not have diplomatic relations
but maintain interests sections in each other's capitals.
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- Boucher said: "We've called upon the Cuban government
to ensure that there will be no similar episodes or new actions in the
future against the interests of the United States."
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- Because of differing regulations for the interests section
and the Cuban permanent mission to the United Nations, the State Department
treated the two cases differently.
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- The U.N. diplomats were not named, were not declared
persona non grata and were merely "requested to leave the United States."
But the effect was the same, Boucher said.
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