Meanwhile, Cuba is a accusing the top US diplomat in Havana of ferrying funds from an anti-Castro exile group in Miami to opposition figures on the island. The cash is said to come from Santiago Alvarez, who was once convicted in the US of conspiring to collect military-style weapons to overthrow Cuba’s government. Alvarez is currently serving a ten-month prison term for refusing to testify against airline bomber Luis Posada Carriles. Cuban Foreign Ministry official Josefina Vidal Ferreira said the cash payments reveals a direct connection between dissidents in Cuba and terrorists in Miami.

Josefina Vidal Ferreira: “The Cuban government has always condemned as illegal the use of federal funds to promote internal subversion in Cuba, as is the case with the direct implication of the department of US interests. But what is doubly scandalous and infuriating is that US diplomats in Havana serve as emissaries and go-betweens for terrorists and Cuban mercenaries.”