Power restored to US mission in Cuba

Power restored to US mission in Cuba
By ANITA SNOW, Associated Press WriterTue Jun 13, 4:17 PM ET

Electricity was restored Tuesday to the U.S. mission in Cuba after
Washington accused Fidel Castro's government of deliberately cutting off
the building's power and Havana angrily denied it.

U.S. Interests Section Chief Michael Parmly said power to the building,
which was cut June 5, was restored midmorning. Parmly said he still
believed the weeklong power outage was deliberate, despite the Cuban
government's adamant denials.

"I find it hard to explain otherwise," Parmly said. "They are denying it
now because it became public."

U.S. officials in Havana and Washington on Monday accused Cuba of
harassing the mission by deliberately cutting off power and lessening
the building's water supply.

Castro's government hit back Tuesday with a front-page editorial in the
Communist Party newspaper Granma saying the power outage was caused by a
problem in the neighborhood grid and that U.S. officials "lie shamelessly."

"Our Revolution would never assault or violate a diplomatic mission,"
the Communist Party daily Granma said indignantly. "It never has and it
never will."

After the outage, the building operated on independent generator power,
continuing regular consular tasks such as interviewing refugees and
issuing visas.

State Department officials in Washington and Havana on Monday described
the power outage as "bullying tactics" by Cuba.

The flap over power at the seven-story mission on Havana's Malecon
coastal highway is the latest in recent disputes about the building.

Castro in January complained about the U.S. government's use of the
building to display an electronic sign streaming news and human rights
messages to passers-by. His government promptly erected a forest of
towering poles to fly scores of huge black flags blocking the sign.

"We categorically deny that there have been premeditated cuts in the
electrical energy to disrupt the functioning of the (U.S.) Interests
Section," Granma said.

The newspaper said heavy rains in recent weeks had damaged a key
underground line leading to the mission and the adjacent
"Anti-Imperialist Plaza" the Cuban government uses for protests of U.S.
policies. Workers were laboring to fix that as well as other affected
lines in the area, it said.

Accidental cuts in power lasting days are not unheard of in Havana,
which has an antiquated power grid that the government is working to
modernize. The Cuban government runs the power company and it was
impossible to independently ascertain the source of the problem.

Granma also objected to the State Department's accusations of other
harassment by the Cuban government, including the denial of visas for
some U.S. officials Washington assigned to work at the mission.

"Cuba fights with clean weapons," Granma said. "It doesn't have to look
for pretexts to harass that office.

"It knows whether to say 'yes' or 'no' to those who they seek to
represent the Empire," it added, referring to the rejection of visas for
some U.S. officials. "It doesn't look for subterfuge, nor does it cut
electrical cables to switch off the written rubbish (on the electronic
sign). It does not harass functionaries or representatives of the United
States."

Havana and Washington have not had full diplomatic relations since 1961
— two years after Castro came to power.

The U.S. Interests Section in Cuba was opened Sept. 1, 1977, during the
administration of then-President Jimmy Carter to provide a minimum of
communications between the two countries. Cuba also has an Interests
Section in Washington.

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