U.S. Orders Ouster of 2 Cuban Diplomats : Responds to Spy Charges Against American Envoys in Havana

The United States on Wednesday ordered the expulsion of the acting head of Cuba’s diplomatic mission here and another officer of its 20-member staff in retaliation for public charges of espionage made against U.S. diplomats in Havana.

The State Department, in announcing the expulsion of the two Cubans, cited a television broadcast on Havana’s government station July 6 that named four U.S. diplomats and three of their wives as CIA agents and showed scenes of their alleged espionage activities.

The department, calling on the Cuban government to retract the accusations, said the “media campaign has caused irreparable harm to these U.S. diplomats and their families, endangering their safety, damaging their reputations and making it impossible for them to carry on their diplomatic functions.”

First Political Expulsion

Wednesday’s action marked the first time that members of the mission had been expelled on political grounds since the establishment of U.S. and Cuban diplomatic facilities in each other’s capitals in 1977. The facilities--known as interests sections--hold a lesser rank than embassies. Low-ranking members of the mission have been deported in past years on such charges as shoplifting and smuggling.

The ousted diplomats are Bienvenido Abierno, acting chief of the Cuban Interests Section in the absence of Ramon Sanchez-Parodi, who has headed the mission here since it was opened but is temporarily in Cuba, and Virgilio Lora, who held a mid-level position as one of two consular officers.

Abierno said he was informed of the U.S. action by note, not summoned to the State Department.

For the last year, he has been in charge of the complex arrangements for Cuba’s participation in next month’s Pan American Games in Indianapolis and said in a telephone interview that it will be difficult for another person to take over the task at this date.

“Ironically, we also got the word today that we will be permitted to fly our teams to the games in Cuban planes,” Abierno said.

One of the major sticking points in the preparations was whether Cuban planes would be permitted to fly directly from Havana to Indianapolis. Cuban diplomats insisted that if the 300-member Olympic contingent had to use U.S. carriers from southern Florida it could not afford to participate.

Under current law, Cuban aircraft are not allowed to fly over or land in U.S. territory. Indiana’s congressional delegation campaigned vigorously to persuade the State Department to alter the normal procedure to meet the Cubans’ demands.

Abierno said the loss of Lora will reduce the mission’s ability to process applications for visas. The issuing of visas to Cuban-Americans to visit their families provides a major source of revenue for the Interests Section.

Spy Charges

The Cuban television broadcast that prompted the ouster charged that half of the more than 60 Americans serving in the U.S. Interests Section since 1977 were CIA agents. In addition, U.S. officials here said Americans in Havana have suffered harassment, such as the spray-painting of their cars.

Cuban-American relations have reached a new low in the last year as Washington has raised accusations of human rights violations by the regime of Fidel Castro, who in turn has asserted that the United States renewed spy plane overflights of Cuba last December. Moreover, the two governments have quarreled over the emigration of political refugees from the island.