By Anita Snow. .c The Associated Press
HAVANA, 28 (AP) - Waiting for the arrival of a Cuban diplomat expelled from the United States after he ignored a State Department demand to leave the country, scores of teen-agers held a pro-government rally outside his family's home in Havana.
Jose Imperatori, 46, was taken into custody by U.S. authorities and flown aboard a U.S. government plane to Montreal late Saturday. He had been expected to leave Canada for Havana on Sunday, but even Imperatori's family said they weren't sure when he would arrive.
Watching the small demonstration of teen-agers shouting, ``Down with the lie!'' and waving Cuban flags outside her white, two-story home in Havana's Vedado neighborhood, Imperatori's mother, Matilde Garcia, said she looked forward to her son's arrival.
``We are absolutely fine, and we are confident that everything will turn out well,'' she said.
A statement read on government television Sunday indicated Imperatori would likely be staying - at least for now - in Canada. He did no appear to be on a flight that arrived in Havana early today.
The Foreign Ministry late Saturday issued instructions to its diplomats in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, to seek a visa for Imperatori ``for the time needed to find an honorable solution to the problem that has been created,'' the statement said. In the meantime, Imperatori will continue a
hunger strike in Ottawa, which he traveled to shortly after arriving in Montreal.
Canadian Foreign Affairs spokesman Patrick Hebert said Sunday night that Imperatori was still in Ottawa and would be leaving ``shortly.'' He would not be more specific about when Imperatori would leave and to where he would be going.
Imperatori's wife, Raquel Fundora, and the couple's 3-year-old son had returned to Havana on Friday night before their diplomatic immunity expired.
``It is incredible that a person who wants to demonstrate (his innocence) ... is not allowed to,'' Fundora said, referring to her husband's attempts to prove he had done nothing wrong.
Imperatori, accompanied by his lawyer, was escorted away from his suburban Maryland apartment by FBI officials who turned up shortly after 8:30 p.m. Saturday. The State Department said he was expelled for not voluntarily leaving by the appointed time.
Late Saturday morning, Imperatori announced his plan to defy the State Department expulsion order so he could contest allegations linking him with U.S. immigration official Mariano Faget, who has been charged with spying for Cuba.
``I declare myself in a hunger strike until I have been absolutely cleared of the accusations brought against me,'' Imperatori said several hours before the State Department's deadline for him to depart the country.
Cuban officials say that they believe the allegations are a smokescreen to block the return of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba.
Faget was arrested a few days before a scheduled court hearing on the Gonzalez case, which was later postponed. The State Department has dismissed such speculation as ``utter nonsense.''
The boy was rescued from the Florida straits in late November after his mother and her boyfriend died, along with several other people, in an effort to get from Cuba to the United States.
Whether Elian should be returned to Cuba or stay with relatives in Miami has created an international furor.
Fernando Remirez, head of Cuba's diplomatic mission, acknowledged that Imperatori had maintained contacts with Faget, but said they were no different from the kinds of aboveboard relationships the mission maintains with many Cuban-Americans and other Americans.
On Saturday morning, Imperatori gave Remirez his resignation as consular affairs officer, leaving him without diplomatic immunity before the 1:30 p.m. Saturday deadline.
Both Imperatori and Remirez have been adamant in their insistence that the Cuban Interests Section does not engage in spying and is used solely for improving relations with the United States.
In their case against Faget, federal authorities said that 12 minutes after they fed him phony information about a pending defection by a Cuban official, they caught him passing it on to a contact with ties to the Cuban government.
AP-NY-02-28-00 0513EST
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. |