WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The Cuban American National Foundation today demanded that the Clinton Administration conduct a full review of the role of a Cuban spy in the Immigration and Naturalization Service's adjudication of the fate of 6-year-old Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez. It said
that the Justice Department should suspend its attempts to deport the little boy back to Cuba while such an investigation is under way.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said today that the apprehended Cuban spy, Mariano Faget, was a supervisory district adjudication officer for the INS in Miami and supervised decisions that affected the residency status of immigrants. The agency also said that Faget had access to classified
and sensitive INS files relating to confidential law enforcement sources and Cuban defectors, which he allegedly routinely passed on to the Castro government.
"We are not about to accept flimsy INS statements that Castro's man in their Miami office had nothing to do with Elian's situation," said CANF Chairman Jorge Mas. "Twice his family applied for political asylum hearings there and twice they were rejected. We are demanding nothing
less than a full Justice Department investigation into how Castro's spy may have jeopardized efforts by Elian's family to achieve due process for the little boy."
Mas said, "It is simply inconceivable that the Justice Department would proceed in their effort to deport Elian as if this arrest never occurred. What information on Elian's case did this man have access to? What was he telling his superiors in Washington? What may he or his Cuban control
agents have leaked to the press? All these questions bear directly on decisions about the little boy's fate and deserve answers."
Mas added that the arrest of the Cuban spy had implications far beyond the case of Elian Gonzalez. "How many lives have been lost or destroyed because of this man providing information to Castro on possible defections? If congratulations are in order for the FBI, we also have to ask why
has it taken them so long to begin rounding up Cuban intelligence agents that the Cuban exile community has been complaining for years have been operating freely in our midst."
In its sting operation against Faget, the FBI said that it took 12 minutes for him to pass on information to a Cuban government interlocutor after receiving information about a possible Cuban defector.
SOURCE Cuban American National Foundation
CO: Cuban American National Foundation; U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service; Federal Bureau of Investigation
ST: District of Columbia, Cuba
IN:
SU: EXE
02/18/2000 15:10 EST http://www.prnewswire.com |