U.S. says no formal charges from Cuba in diplomat tiff

U.S. says no formal charges from Cuba in diplomat tiff
Sat May 24, 2008 4:47pm EDT

HAVANA (Reuters) - The United States said on Saturday it has received no
formal complaints from Cuba after its accusations this week that the top
American diplomat in Havana broke international laws by ferrying money
from an anti-Castro exile to a Cuban dissident.

A spokesman for the U.S. Interests Section in Havana said the Cubans had
so far made all their charges in the media and had not contacted the
United States.

"It's all been done through press and television," he said.

"If the government of Cuba has concerns about the conduct of U.S.
diplomats, it should communicate them through official diplomatic
channels rather than calling press conferences," said a statement from
the U.S. Interests Section.

"It is not our practice to respond to allegations or claims made through
the press."

The United States has an interests section but not an embassy in Cuba
because the two countries, foes since Fidel Castro took power in the
1959 Cuban revolution, do not have formal diplomatic relations.

In press conferences and on television, Cuba has revealed e-mails and
videotapes it said shows Interests Section chief Michael Parmly served
as a go-between for a payment from Miami businessman Santiago Alvarez to
dissident Martha Beatriz Roque.

The spokesman said he could neither confirm nor deny the charges.

He said it was not unusual for U.S. diplomats, who openly work with
opponents to the Cuban government, to carry mail from relatives in Miami
to Roque without knowing its contents.

Alvarez is currently in U.S. prison on weapons charges. He is a
colleague of Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile now living in Miami who
has been accused of masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban Airlines
flight that killed 73 people.

The spokesman said U.S. diplomats were mystified by the Cuban campaign
this week but said it may have been a verbal shot across the bow to
discourage more direct U.S. financial aid to dissidents.

(Reporting by Jeff Franks; editing by Jackie Frank)

http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Cuba/idUSN1955383420080524?sp=true