U.S. Orders Expulsion of Cuban Envoy

The State Department on Saturday ordered the expulsion of a Cuban diplomat, apparently on evidence that he was the “handler” of the Cuban-born U.S. immigration official recently arrested on spying charges in Miami.

A State Department spokesman declined to name the diplomat but said that he had been ordered out within seven days because of “actions incompatible with his diplomatic status.” The phrase is official jargon for spying.

Although America has no diplomatic relations with Cuba, Cuba keeps a staff of government officials, who receive diplomatic immunity, in Washington. They work out of an office called the Cuban Interests Section, housed in the Czech Republic Embassy. America maintains a similar mission in Havana.

State Department spokesman James B. Foley said the acting head of the Cuban Interests Section, Felix Wilson, was summoned Saturday afternoon and informed of the expulsion order during a 15-minute meeting. The unnamed diplomat is expected to comply with the order.

It was believed to be the first time since 1996 that a Cuban diplomat was ordered to leave the United States. That year, Cuba expelled Robin Meyer, a member of the U.S. political-economic section in Havana, on spying charges. Washington retaliated by ordering the Cuban spokesman out of the country.

Saturday’s expulsion followed the arrest Thursday of Mariano Faget, 54, the No. 3 official in the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service office in Miami. Faget is the first U.S. government official to have been arrested and charged with spying for Cuba.

Faget was arrested in a sting operation set up by the FBI, U.S. authorities said, months after a routine investigation raised suspicions about him.

In his job as the INS’ adjudications chief for Miami, he had access to private information about Cubans seeking political asylum in America. Such information, if passed to the Cuban government, could have been used to harass the asylum-seekers’ relatives back in Cuba, authorities said, or possibly to thwart defections before they took place.

So far, U.S. officials have not cited specific cases in which Faget’s alleged activities harmed Cuban nationals.

The FBI said it monitored Faget for about a year and observed him contacting the Cuban Interests Section in Washington--presumably communicating with the official who was expelled Saturday. The FBI said Faget also met with Cuban intelligence officers in Miami and failed to report the meetings to his INS superiors. Although he held a secret security clearance, Faget was not authorized to meet with Cuban government officials to discuss immigration matters.

The FBI said it fed Faget a fake tip about the upcoming defection of a Cuban intelligence agent. It then monitored his phone calls and said that one of its agents heard him alert a Cuban-born businessman with ties to the Cuban government.

The expulsion comes amid heightened tensions between America and Cuba over the immigration status of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez, who was rescued at sea after his mother and 10 others drowned when their boat capsized as they were trying to flee Cuba last November. Relatives are now fighting for legal permission to keep Elian in Miami, against the wishes of the boy’s father, who remains in Cuba. The INS on Friday rejected a request by Elian’s father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, to remove his son from the home of the Miami relatives who are caring for him.

A federal court in Miami is scheduled to hear the relatives’ petition for Elian’s asylum Tuesday. But after the spying case became public, a lawyer for the family, Spencer Eig, began arguing for a delay in the boy’s case, in case the alleged spy “influenced” U.S. decisions on Elian.

The INS says Faget had no role in Elian’s case. Faget’s bail hearing is set for Thursday.

In Cuba, a government statement read at a rally Saturday that called for Elian’s repatriation condemned the U.S. actions and denied the charges of espionage. Cuban President Fidel Castro was present when the document was read in the province of Santiago de Cuba.