By Juan O. Tamayo. jtamayo@herald.com. Published Tuesday, February 22, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Official joined grandmothers on visit; Havana defies U.S. expulsion order
The Cuban diplomat ordered expelled by the State Department in the Mariano Faget spy case joined Elian Gonzalez's grandmothers when they came to Miami-Dade last month, U.S. officials confirmed Monday.
Meanwhile, the State Department advised Havana Monday that the diplomat must leave, despite Cuba's weekend announcement that he would stay in Washington and fight allegations against him.
The twin developments added bizarre new twists to the already tortured tale of the 6-year-old shipwreck survivor, and opened the door to an ugly confrontation over the Cuban diplomat if he indeed refuses to go.
Havana's defiant reply to the expulsion order came as a surprise because the State Department had tried to keep it low-key by refusing to identify the diplomat. The Cuban government has also declined to name him.
But three U.S. officials identified the diplomat Monday as Jose Imperatori, who holds the rank of second secretary for consular affairs at the Cuban Interests Section, in effect Havana's embassy in Washington.
Imperatori was ordered expelled Saturday based on an FBI complaint identifying him as one of the two Cuban diplomats and intelligence agents who met last year in Miami with Faget, 54.
The Cuban-born Immigration and Naturalization Service supervisor was arrested Thursday in Miami and charged with revealing secret information given to him by the FBI -- in fact a bureau trap.
INS officials have tried to keep the Elian Gonzalez and Faget cases as far from each other as possible, denying complaints that Faget could have somehow influenced the INS decision to return the child to his father in Cuba.
But the Cuban government has gone out of its way to connect the two, alleging that the charges against Faget are part of a campaign by anti-Castro exiles and others to undermine the INS decision to return Elian to Cuba.
The charges against Faget ``were without a doubt hatched by the Miami Mafia with the complicity of corrupt FBI officials, said a Cuban government statement Sunday, using one of Havana's epithets for Cuban exiles.
The later order to expel the Cuban diplomat was ``a low and dirty maneuver by Cuban exiles to torpedo INS attempts to return Elian to Cuba, said Cuban Interests Section spokesman Luis Fernandez Monday.
A Cuban government statement issued Monday repeated Havana's intention not to withdraw the diplomat ordered expelled, saying he was ``victim of a brutal provocation and a vile calumny.
It described the diplomat as ``an efficient, disciplined, reliable and young functionary, respectful of U.S. laws, who has not committed any violations at all in carrying out his diplomatic functions.''
``This is not optional, said State Department Cuban Affairs Director Charles Shapiro, adding that his office reaffirmed to Havana over the weekend that the man's diplomatic immunity would expire at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
Just what would happen if the Cuban diplomat stays after that time was unclear Monday. No diplomat has challenged an expulsion order in recent memory, but the U.S. government was observing Presidents' Day.
At the very least the Cuban diplomat could be declared an illegal immigrant and physically deported. It's not certain he could be prosecuted for spying activities he may have carried out when he had diplomatic immunity.
Imperatori played a strange role in the events of Jan. 23, when Elian Gonzalez's grandmothers flew from Washington to Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport and waited there for hours while negotiating to see Elian.
Miami-Dade Police reported Imperatori arrived at the airport by car and was spotted taking photographs of the scene. He was also overheard speaking on a telephone to a ``Sr. Alarcon, apparently Ricardo Alarcon, the Cuban official who handles most U.S.-Cuba relations.
National Council of Churches officials accompanying the grandmothers said Imperatori insisted on speaking to Raquel Rodriguez and Mariela Quintana, but was kept away until after the negotiations ended without success.
One law enforcement agent present said Imperatori then seemed to take control of the situation, ordering the grandmothers' chartered jet be fueled and joining them on their return flight to Washington.
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald |