Last 1 November, the Head of the Cuba Desk at the US State Department delivered a Diplomatic Note to the Head of Cuba�s Interests Section in Washington informing that officials Oscar Redondo Toledo and Gustavo Mach�n G�mez, both First Secretaries of our Mission, had been declared “personas non grata” on account of alleged intelligence activities by Cuba in the United States and giving these comrades 10 days to leave that country.
The US officials who delivered the Note acknowledged that they had no evidence whatsoever of any involvement of our diplomats in intelligence activities. In addition, it must be said that comrade Mach�n is the official in charge of the US business sectors, whose endeavor in favor of eliminating the regulations hindering economic relations between Cuba and the United States has greatly upset the anti-Cuban mafia and its allies in Washington. In the case of comrade Oscar Redondo, it must be stated that he is one of the officials with an outstanding performance in our rebuttal of all the slanders and lies concocted by the State Department in relation to our country�s inclusion on the spurious list of States that sponsor terrorism and the false allegations about the alleged production of biological weapons in Cuba. He has also developed respectful relations of friendship and contact with prestigious former US military officers now acting as academics in the field of defense.
Both comrades were engaged there in absolutely legal work of a political and diplomatic nature, fully abiding by US laws. They are not guilty of anything, but victims of this useless and senseless retaliation.
Additionally, the US Mission to the United Nations sent to the Cuban Mission to such organization another Diplomatic Note accusing officials Francisco Gonz�lez Garc�a, Counselor of our Mission in charge of issues pertaining to the UN Fourth Committee, particularly those connected with the Information Committee, and Carlos Augusto Suanes Flexas, Second Secretary also in charge of issues from the Fourth Committee � mainly those on Palestine, Decolonization and Peacekeeping Operations, of exceeding their official capacity and becoming involved in activities affecting the United States of America. In that regard, a 66-hour deadline was given to provide information rebutting such assertion. In the event that such information failed to be supplied or were not compelling, a request would be made for the prompt departure of the two officials from the United States. Our Government, of course, decided not to respond to such infamous request, convinced that it was a political decision reached before hand and that no arguments from our side would bring about a shift in it. On 4 November, an official notice was served on our Mission to the United Nations informing that both officials had 10 days, as of 1 November, to leave the United States.
The Government of the United States, responsible for the worldﾴs largest and most sophisticated intelligence apparatus, does not have any moral authority or justification whatsoever to endorse these assertions against our diplomats.
In turn, the Cuban Government has enough documented evidence of the subversive, intrusive and counterrevolutionary activities carried out by officials from the US Interests Section in Havana, in flagrant violation of all the tenets contained in the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
The Government of the United States knows that we can produce extensive evidence of its constant espionage and subversion activities against Cuba.
The Cuban Government and people have no questions about the mastermind behind these ludicrous and irrational fabrications, the objective therein and the moment chosen to bring them forward.
Mr. Otto Reich, responsible for the Western Hemisphere at the US State Department and representative of the anti-Cuban mafia to the US Government, resorted to these and other desperate measures ﾖ just days before the mid-term elections in the United States ﾖ with the purpose of building up the irrational hostility against Cuba that already worsens the complex state of relations between both countries and, above all, with the obsession of curtailing the unstoppable movement of the forces within the US opposing the policy of aggression and attacks against Cuba.
With his proverbial political clumsiness, revealed on repeated occasions during his performance within the US State Department, Mr. Otto Reich is daydreaming and thinking that through actions of this nature ﾖ full of cynicism and deceit ﾖ he will be able to curb the unbridled progress of extensive sectors of the American people increasingly advocating the normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States.
This character and his lackeys in Washington and Miami can only resort to constant lies and gross provocations similar to the ones that have been fabricated now against our diplomatic officials as the last remedies to try to halt history.
Unable to respond to the challenge by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Mr. Otto Reich decides to continue lying. Over 144 hours have elapsed since that challenge took place and no response has been received from the US authorities. Instead, this new aggravation is staged.
We hold the Government of the United States fully accountable for the actions of irresponsible characters such as Otto Reich, intent on fostering his obsessed personal agenda to the prejudice of the legitimate interests of the American people. Cuba is entitled to respond ﾖ and it will, at the appropriate time and with the political and diplomatic tools at its disposal. We will not lose sight of the provocative nature of this action. We will not forget that the American people are not responsible at all for these follies.
We will continue to develop all sorts of relations with the American people. The removal of our diplomats will not prevent Cubaﾴs message from being heard at the United Nations; it will not prevent us from spreading the truth and reaching all those people who in the United States are interested in holding an outspoken and open dialogue with Cuba beyond any philosophical or political differences.
These actions will not prevent us from further denouncing the US Governmentﾴs refusal to negotiate cooperation agreements proposed by Cuba to combat terrorism, drug trafficking, alien smuggling and illegal migration. They will not prevent us from further denouncing the double standards used by the US Government in its anti-Cuban policy.
Once again, the Government of the United States shows the gross manipulation of its relations with Cuba from the electoral standpoint, in open contradiction with the will of the American people to improve relations between both countries.
Cuba will respond, as always ﾖ with steadfastness, dignity and intelligence ﾖ to this new provocation that will not prevent the final and inevitable defeat of the US hostile and aggressive policy against Cuba, let alone the progress of the Cuban Revolution towards the attainment of new goals for our people in the economic, political, cultural and social fields.
Cuba fully rejects these false and shameless allegations against its officials.
Actions like these do not daunt and will never daunt the Cuban people.
Havana, 6 November 2002
