US diplomats 'giving cash to Cuba dissidents'
Cuba says it has documented proof that US diplomats on the island are delivering private funds to political dissidents to undermine the Communist government.
Although Cuba has accused US officials of funnelling government funds to dissidents before - a charge Washington has repeatedly denied - last night's accusation is the first to suggest American diplomats are acting as couriers to deliver privately-donated cash, outside Washington's auditing oversight.
Cuban Foreign Ministry and State Security officials made the accusation in an interview with The Associated Press before a detailed accusation they plan to outline at a news conference today. They gave no further details.
An official from the US State Department's US Interests Section in Havana declined to comment and said authorities at the American mission were unlikely to respond until they had seen a detailed denunciation.
The Cuban officials - Josefina Vidal Ferreira, director of the Foreign Ministry's North American Department, and Manuel Hevia Frasquieri, director of Cuban State Security's Historic Investigations Centre - would not name the American officials they accuse of acting as couriers.
They also withheld the name of a "noted terrorist of Cuban origin living in US territory", whom they claim provided the funds. They declined to say how much money was allegedly involved or who received it.
"It's a scandalous deed that shows just how far the US is willing to go to subvert the internal order," Ms Vidal said.
Giving dissidents private cash marked a "qualitative difference" in the way financial support was being channelled to the political opposition on the island, she said.
Cuba's government has documented proof that officials at the US Interest Section in Havana were involved, Mr Hevia said, suggesting that some of that evidence would be presented, along with other details, at today's news conference.
Cuba has accused officials at the American mission of providing US government funds and material support to the island's tiny opposition for years.
US officials have acknowledged sending books, radios, tape recorders and other items purchased through the US Agency for International Development, which receives government funding, but they have always adamantly denied giving dissidents cash.
