Alleged spy continues Ottawa hunger strike
Colin Grey. The Ottawa Citizen; with files from Citizen News Services
HAVANA, Cuba -- Jose Imperatori's family held a vigil at their home here yesterday, as officials negotiated the fate of the Cuban diplomat now on a hunger strike in Ottawa.
Little changed in Cuba or Canada, as Mr. Imperatori remained illegally in Ottawa following the expiration of his visa several days ago.
Meanwhile, the scene outside Mr. Imperatori's arched stucco house, nestled in the Havana neighbourhood of Vedado, had quieted down after days of protest saw throngs of students denouncing the U.S. chanting, "Down with the lie!"
The charges against Mr. Imperatori stem from contact he had with a U.S. immigration official who was arrested last month for spying.
FBI agents escorted the diplomat to Canada Sunday. Instead of continuing on to Cuba, however, he is holed up in Cuba's embassy in Ottawa.
Mr. Imperatori has insisted he never discussed intelligence matters with the accused, and since the weekend he has subsisted on a diet of sugar water. "I declare myself on a hunger strike until I have been absolutely cleared of the accusations brought against me," he said.
While in the U.S. for a little less than a year, the 46-year-old diplomat had a hand in several "people-to-people" exchanges, for instance arranging for the Baltimore Orioles to play in Cuba.
His indignation -- unprecedented in a diplomat who has been asked to withdraw from a foreign country -- has been largely shared by his family and echoed in statements by the official Cuban media. In Cuba he has become something of a hero and his name is as famous as that of Elian Gonzalez, the
six-year-old whose custody in being contested between his father in Cuba and relatives in Miami.
To Cubans, both have become symbols of America's unjust treatment of their country. The Cuban government has accused the U.S. of trumping up the charges against Mr. Imperatori to make it an easier sell to keep Elian Gonzalez in America, which has been denied by U.S. officials.
"(American officials) did not expect his response, his decisive attitude of resistance, based on injustice ... our people back him up by all means because they know that it is unjust and because they understand that all this is born from the monstrous crime of kidnapping a six-year-old
Cuban child," a press release from the Cuban government said yesterday.
Yesterday Mr. Imperatori's wife, Raquel Funeora, politely declined comment to a Citizen reporter. Clutching her three-year-old child, she also sported a button calling for Elian Gonzalez's return to Cuba.
"It is incredible that a person who wants to demonstrate (his innocence) ... is not allowed to," Mrs. Funeora has said in one of her only statements to the press.
Mr Imperatori's visa to stay in Canada expired three days ago, but he cannot be arrested or deported while at the embassy.
One of his lawyers, Ted Killory, said his client was still negotiating to return to the U.S. He noted an American spokesman's statement that the United States might be amenable to allowing the diplomat back.
But Buck Shinkman, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, said officials in Washington have been clear that Mr. Imperatori must return to Cuba.
"This man's return to Cuba was a plan that was agreed to by all three governments, and then all of a sudden it goes awry," Mr. Shinkman said.
Copyright 2000 Ottawa Citizen |