Official joined grandmothers on visit; Havana defies U.S. expulsion order

 BY JUAN O. TAMAYO

 The Cuban diplomat ordered expelled by the State Department in the Mariano
 Faget spy case joined Elian Gonzalez's grandmothers when they came to
 Miami-Dade last month, U.S. officials confirmed Monday.

 Meanwhile, the State Department advised Havana Monday that the diplomat must
 leave, despite Cuba's weekend announcement that he would stay in Washington
 and fight allegations against him.

 The twin developments added bizarre new twists to the already tortured tale of the
 6-year-old shipwreck survivor, and opened the door to an ugly confrontation over
 the Cuban diplomat if he indeed refuses to go.

 Havana's defiant reply to the expulsion order came as a surprise because the
 State Department had tried to keep it low-key by refusing to identify the diplomat.
 The Cuban government has also declined to name him.

 But three U.S. officials identified the diplomat Monday as Jose Imperatori, who
 holds the rank of second secretary for consular affairs at the Cuban Interests
 Section, in effect Havana's embassy in Washington.

 Imperatori was ordered expelled Saturday based on an FBI complaint identifying
 him as one of the two Cuban diplomats and intelligence agents who met last year
 in Miami with Faget, 54.

 The Cuban-born Immigration and Naturalization Service supervisor was arrested
 Thursday in Miami and charged with revealing secret information given to him by
 the FBI -- in fact a bureau trap.

 INS officials have tried to keep the Elian Gonzalez and Faget cases as far from
 each other as possible, denying complaints that Faget could have somehow
 influenced the INS decision to return the child to his father in Cuba.

 But the Cuban government has gone out of its way to connect the two, alleging
 that the charges against Faget are part of a campaign by anti-Castro exiles and
 others to undermine the INS decision to return Elian to Cuba.

 The charges against Faget ``were without a doubt hatched by the Miami Mafia
 with the complicity of corrupt FBI officials, said a Cuban government statement
 Sunday, using one of Havana's epithets for Cuban exiles.

 The later order to expel the Cuban diplomat was ``a low and dirty maneuver by
 Cuban exiles to torpedo INS attempts to return Elian to Cuba, said Cuban
 Interests Section spokesman Luis Fernandez Monday.

 A Cuban government statement issued Monday repeated Havana's intention not
 to withdraw the diplomat ordered expelled, saying he was ``victim of a brutal
 provocation and a vile calumny.

 It described the diplomat as ``an efficient, disciplined, reliable and young
 functionary, respectful of U.S. laws, who has not committed any violations at all in
 carrying out his diplomatic functions.''

 ``This is not optional, said State Department Cuban Affairs Director Charles
 Shapiro, adding that his office reaffirmed to Havana over the weekend that the
 man's diplomatic immunity would expire at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

 Just what would happen if the Cuban diplomat stays after that time was unclear
 Monday. No diplomat has challenged an expulsion order in recent memory, but
 the U.S. government was observing Presidents' Day.

 At the very least the Cuban diplomat could be declared an illegal immigrant and
 physically deported. It's not certain he could be prosecuted for spying activities he
 may have carried out when he had diplomatic immunity.

 Imperatori played a strange role in the events of Jan. 23, when Elian Gonzalez's
 grandmothers flew from Washington to Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport and
 waited there for hours while negotiating to see Elian.

 Miami-Dade Police reported Imperatori arrived at the airport by car and was
 spotted taking photographs of the scene. He was also overheard speaking on a
 telephone to a ``Sr. Alarcon, apparently Ricardo Alarcon, the Cuban official who
 handles most U.S.-Cuba relations.

 National Council of Churches officials accompanying the grandmothers said
 Imperatori insisted on speaking to Raquel Rodriguez and Mariela Quintana, but
 was kept away until after the negotiations ended without success.

 One law enforcement agent present said Imperatori then seemed to take control
 of the situation, ordering the grandmothers' chartered jet be fueled and joining
 them on their return flight to Washington.