Posted on Mon, May. 19, 2008
By WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press Writer
HAVANA --
Cuba on Monday accused America's top diplomat in the country of ferrying
funds to dissidents on the island from a man it characterizes as a
terrorist.
E-mails and other correspondence suggest U.S. Interests Section chief
Michael Parmly was asked to carry cash from Miami to dissidents in
Havana, Cuban authorities said. In one e-mail, activist Martha Beatriz
Roque urged her nephew in Miami to give "letters" to Parmly. Cuban
officials claim the word "letters" was code for cash, but they gave no
proof money was involved.
Cuba said the funds came from the Miami-based Fundacion Rescate
Juridica, headed by Santiago Alvarez, a Cuban-American businessman once
convicted in the U.S. of conspiring to collect military-style weapons to
overthrow Cuba's government.
Alvarez is currently serving a 10-month prison term for refusing to
testify against Luis Posada Carriles, the alleged mastermind of bombings
of a Cuban jetliner and hotels, and of assassination attempts on former
President Fidel Castro.
"This reveals the connection between the counterrevolutionaries in Cuba
and the terrorists," Cuban Foreign Ministry official Josefina Vidal
Ferreira said at a news conference carried live on state television and
radio.
She asked U.S. authorities to carry out their own "deep investigations,"
and said Cuba is "waiting for the government of the United States to
take appropriate measures and adhere to international protocol."
The U.S. and Cuba do not have diplomatic relations, maintaining
interests sections rather than embassies in each other's capitals.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said he wasn't
aware of the specific accusations against Parmly, but insisted "we are
not violating international law."
"The U.S. government has programs to provide humanitarian assistance to
people that are essentially forgotten by the Cuban government,"
McCormack said. "We do not stand in the way of private groups doing that
as well."
Cuban officials showed messages they said were from a Yahoo e-mail
account in Roque's name that mention monthly payments from Alvarez's
organization of US$1,500 (euro965) to Roque and US$200 (euro125) to
dissident Jose Luis Garcia Perez. Rescate Juridica also arranged
US$2,400 (euro1,540) for the "Ladies in White," an opposition group
whose members include dissident Laura Pollan, officials said.
Authorities promised to present more evidence supporting their
accusations against U.S. diplomats in coming days.
The allegations come two weeks after U.S. President George W. Bush spoke
to Roque, Pollan and Garcia Perez in a video conference at the Interests
Section.
Cuba has long accused American officials here of supporting the island's
few dissidents, but Monday marked the first time it accused U.S.
diplomats of passing private funds directly to opposition leaders.
American authorities acknowledge delivering books, radios and other
items, but adamantly deny giving cash.
Pollan and Roque could not be reached on Monday. Pollan was visiting her
imprisoned activist husband, and a woman answering at Roque's home
screamed "She's not here!" and slammed down the phone.
On Monday evening, a government round-table program broadcast security
video that showed the 63-year-old Roque entering a hotel to use its
Internet service. The footage featured a reconstruction of her
keystrokes - including the purported password to her Yahoo account.
Roque was one of 75 dissidents and independent journalists arrested and
charged with working with U.S. officials to undermine Cuba's government
in 2003. She was later freed on medical parole, but would return to
prison if she is found to be violating the conditions of her release.
A lawyer for Alvarez, Kendall Coffey, called the allegations "utterly
false" and accused Havana of a long-standing effort "to try to discredit
nonviolent dissidents."
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