"Cuba Cuts Off Electricity to US Mission in Havana, US Embassy Says" - AFP (Washington), 12 June 2006
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States said the Cuban government had cut off electricity to its diplomatic mission in Havana, accusing it of engaging in "bullying tactics."
"On Monday, June 5, at approximately 3:00 am, electricity to the main building of the US interests section in Havana was cut off," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told a press conference.
"The US interests section building is the only building in the neighborhood without electricity," he said, adding: "I wonder how that happened."
McCormack said that the United States had written to the Cuban government asking for power to be restored, and had also issued a request through the Swiss embassy, which represents US interests.
But as of Monday morning, "the power remains cut off and the US interests section is operating on generator power."
The spokesman said work was continuing at the US mission, including interviews with refugees, and said he believed the communist regime had cut power to punish Washington over its efforts to provide information to Cubans about human rights and other issues.
The move "has everything to do with their displeasure over some of the activities" at the US mission, he said.
Cuba had also been periodically "turning down the spigot on the water supply," the spokesman said.
He said Cuba's strategy would have no effect on the US mission's efforts....
Cuban President Fidel Castro has been irked by a huge electronic billboard on the US mission's facade, which runs messages promoting democracy and human rights....
For background on the tit-for-tat over the electric message board, see US Interests Section Uses Crawler to Reach Cubans.
Added 13 June 2006:
"US Best Served by Avoiding Confrontation with Castro" - editorial, the Miami Herald, 13 June 2006
Like a slum lord who doesn't want to openly evict unwanted tenants, Cuba's dictator is turning up the heat on the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. In the last week, the Cuban regime has cut off electricity. It's also restricting water supply. The moves are only the latest in a bizarre harassment campaign escalating for months.
These are troubling signs of how far Fidel Castro will go to counter any source that might infect ordinary Cubans with ideas about human rights, democracy and free thinking. And there's no telling when, if ever, the campaign will stop. The United States needs to steel itself. Castro is spoiling for a confrontation. We shouldn't give it to him or close the Interests Section in Havana.
Tony Soprano has nothing on Fidel Castro. Late last year, a top diplomat in the U.S. Interests Section entered his Havana home to find it covered in excrement. It was payback for allowing Cuban dissidents access to the Internet. Other diplomats have had tires slashed and utilities cut. Czech, Spanish and Polish envoys have been targeted, too. Castro wants only foreign diplomats who protest no human-rights violations and ask ''How high?'' when he says ``Jump.''
Perhaps this explains the contradictory stance of the EU Council yesterday. While EU foreign ministers deplored increases in political prisoners and repression in Cuba, they refused to reinstate sanctions that had been lifted last year. Had sanctions been renewed, EU diplomats could have faced a new round of nasty harassment in Havana.
The U.S. Interests Section, meanwhile, has fired up generators and its desalinization plant. It's also working around other imposed difficulties to get gas and diesel fuel. The processing of the 20,000 annual immigrant visas for Cubans has not been affected, so far. Those visas and support for dissidents provide Cubans a lifeline of hope that the U.S. government should sustain.
It would make no sense for Castro to close the U.S. Interests Section and disrupt those visas, a key escape valve for dissidents and disaffected Cubans. But rationality has never been this dictator's strong suit. His sole aim is to stay in power by acting like a thug, and he has no intention of changing his style.
If anything, Castro is emboldened by the support of protégés Hugo Chávez and Evo Morales. Like China's Mao Zedong and the Soviet Union's Joseph Stalin, Castro may be growing more paranoid and harsher as he ages. None of this bodes well for the United States or Cuba's people.
Added 14 June:
"US-Cuba Row over Mission Blackout" - BBC News, 14 June 2006
US diplomats have accused the Cuban government of using bullying tactics, including cutting off the electricity to their mission in Havana....
Cuba, which said the US authorities were lying "shamelessly", has announced that the country's shortages are over.
Correspondents say blackouts have wreaked havoc on the economy since the collapse of Cuba's main benefactor, the Soviet Union, in 1991.
Basic Industry Minister Yadira Garcia told parliament on Saturday that hundreds of small power plants had been linked in to the electricity grid, making more power available for the summer peak period.
"In less than eight months conditions have been created that guarantee that there will be no blackouts in our country due to a lack of generating capacity," she said, quoted by Reuters news agency.
However, the minister did not rule out some continuing supply problems for other reasons.
The US diplomats say the power to their main building was cut off in the middle of the night on 5 June and repeated calls to the Cuban authorities asking them to restore the electricity went unanswered.
Electricity flowed again on Tuesday, they said.
"The lights came back on in the early afternoon," mission spokesman Drew Blakeney told Reuters.
A statement issued by the Interests Section described the electrical cut off as part of Cuba's "bullying tactics", which it said includes preventing diplomats from importing cars, and "intrusions" into their homes.
On Tuesday, an editorial in Cuba's main communist party newspaper, Granma, denied that power to the Interests Section had been deliberately cut, saying that recent bad weather had caused electrical problems in the area.
It described the mission as the "headquarters and bank of mercenaries" and suggested that the US was looking for a pretext to break off all the already minimal diplomatic ties with Cuba....
"Power Restored to US Mission in Cuba," by Anita Snow - AP (Havana), 13 June 2006
HAVANA - Electricity was restored Tuesday to the U.S. mission in Cuba after Washington accused Fidel Castro's government of deliberately cutting off the building's power and Havana angrily denied it.
U.S. Interests Section Chief Michael Parmly said power to the building, which was cut June 5, was restored midmorning. Parmly said he still believed the weeklong power outage was deliberate, despite the Cuban government's adamant denials.
"I find it hard to explain otherwise," Parmly said. "They are denying it now because it became public."...
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