Press Statement of the United States Interests Section in Havana

Press Statement of the United States Interests Section in Havana

2006-06-13

Cuba, June 12, 2006. The Cuban people, especially human rights and
pro-democracy activists, continue to suffer much more severe harassment
on a daily basis than does the United States Interests Section (USINT)
in Havana. The regime's increasing resort to bullying tactics in dealing
with USINT and the Cuban people comes as no surprise: It has long sought
to isolate and harass the Interests Section.

The regime's latest harassment includes the refusal to allow USINT to
import vehicles; prevention of USINT hiring of Cuban personnel to work
in maintenance, construction, or in any other capacity; intrusions into
diplomats' homes; and failure to grant the majority of official U.S.
government visa requests for personnel being assigned to work at USINT.
Work at USINT continues uninterrupted, including the interviewing of
visa and political asylum candidates, and direct outreach to the Cuban
people. Normal procedures continue to apply to the treatment of
classified materials at USINT.

Background:

On Monday, June 5, at approximately 3 a.m., electricity to the main
building of the United States Interests Section (USINT) in Havana, Cuba
was cut off. It appears that the USINT building was the only building in
the neighborhood that was so cut off. Requests to the Cuban government
to restore power have gone unanswered, and USINT continues to operate on
generator power. The municipal supply of water to the USINT main
building was turned off from February 22 to March 26, 2006, and water
supply to the Refugee Annex has literally been a trickle for most of
this year, although the flow increased recently. The water supply
continues to be capricious, and the flow to the main building again
stopped last week for three days.

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