US expels 14 Cuban diplomats

The US has ordered the expulsion of 14 Cuban diplomats – seven from the Cuban mission at the UN in New York – for engaging in intelligence activities.

The UN Cubans are being expelled “for engaging in activities deemed harmful to the United States outside their official capacity,” said a US official, using diplomatic language for spying.

“These activities constitute an abuse of their privileges of residence,” the official said.

In Washington, a State Department spokesman said: “In response to intelligence activities incompatible with their diplomatic status, the United States today declared seven diplomats in the Cuban Interests Section in Washington persona non grata.”

The United States gave the diplomats in Washington 10 days to leave the country, but there was no time frame given to the New York-based diplomats to depart.

With echoes of the Cold War, the Bush administration and Cuban authorities have been in an escalating tit-for-tat reminiscent of darker days in US-Cuban relations.

Late last month, the United States walked out of a UN meeting in protest at Cuba’s re-election to the Human Rights Commission, calling it “an outrage” that undermines the group’s credibility.

Cuba’s uncontested election to the Geneva-based Human Rights Commission came weeks after Fidel Castro’s government jailed 75 independent journalists, librarians and opposition leaders and executed three alleged hijackers trying to get to the United States.

Two months ago, Cuba clamped down on travel by American diplomats, demanding that each trip beyond a specified area around metropolitan Havana be approved.

The State Department responded immediately by imposing the same condition on travel by Washington-based Cubans.