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By Vivian Sequera. Associated Press Writer.
The Miami
Herald, April 8, 2002.
HAVANA - (AP) -- The chief of the U.S. mission here Monday rejected charges
by Fidel Castro's government that American officials had violated diplomatic
norms when they distributed hundreds of small radios to Cubans.
''We reject that this was in any way a violation of the Vienna Convention,''
Vicky Huddleston told The Associated Press in the lobby of the oceanfront U.S.
Interests Section, where security by Cuban police guards has been increased
since the weekend. "Everything done by the mission here is correct.''
Huddleston declined to comment on reasons for the increased police presence
outside the mission since the weekend.
The Cuban government generally stations only two or three police guards
outside each of the foreign embassies in Havana, but more than a dozen were
guarding the American mission starting on the weekend.
Last week, Havana protested to Washington that U.S. diplomats -- including
Huddleston -- had distributed 500 radios to Cuban activists. Cuban officials
characterized the action as ''subversive'' and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez
Roque in a speech on Saturday accused the American mission of violating the
Vienna Convention through that and other actions.
Cuban authorities said that the radios evidently were provided to allow
Cubans to listen to the Miami-based Radio Marti, a U.S. government station whose
signals Havana has jammed in the past. Huddleston said Cubans could use the
radios to listen to any station they liked.
''How could any government in the world be worried about people having a
radio?'' asked Huddleston, who said American officials have distributed similar
radios in countries around the world, including Africa.
Huddleston characterized Perez Roque's warnings Saturday to American
diplomats as "an attempt at intimidation.''
''Our patience has limits,'' the foreign minister said during his Saturday
morning speech before tens of thousands of people gathered just east of Havana.
''We are warning the American diplomats ... that they not believe that we don't
know'' of their activities.
''I don't think we should be intimidated,'' Huddleston said. "And if
there are consequences because I won't be intimidated then I suppose I'll have
to accept the consequences.'' | 
