US rejects Cuban allegation that detained American contractor is a spy

US denies detained American in Cuba is a spy

WASHINGTON — The State Department on Thursday denied a senior Cuban official’s claim that a U.S. government contractor detained on the communist island is a spy, and the head of the man’s company said he was working not with dissidents but with a religious and cultural group recognized by the Cuban government.

“Those comments are false,” spokesman P.J. Crowley said, referring to remarks made by Cuban parliament leader Ricardo Alarcon on Wednesday. Alarcon said the contractor, who has not been identified by either government, had been hired to work for “American intelligence services.”

“Cuba has a history of mischaracterizing what Americans and NGOs in Cuba are doing,” Crowley told reporters, referring to civic groups. “This person is not associated with our intelligence services.”

The man was detained on Dec. 4 as he attempted to board a plane leaving Cuba, but Cuban officials did not grant him access to consular officials from the U.S. Interests Section — which Washington maintains in Cuba instead of an embassy — until Dec. 28.

Gloria Berbena, a spokeswoman at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, told The Associated Press on Thursday that American officials had not met with the detained American since the initial consular visit.

“We will seek continued access,” she said, adding that State Department officials are “in continuing contact with family members of the detained American.”

Alarcon said the man is under investigation but has not yet been charged. His comments were the first by a Cuban official accusing the man of spying.

The State Department has said that the man was working as a subcontractor for the Maryland-based economic development organization Development Alternatives Inc.

The company’s president, James Boomgard, said Wednesday that the man was “a committed development professional with many years of experience providing humanitarian and development assistance.”

“He was working with a peaceful, nondissident civic group — a religious and cultural group recognized by the Cuban government — to improve its ability to communicate with its members across the island and overseas,” Boomgard said in a statement, adding that the man was distributing “basic IT equipment such as cell phones and laptops.”

“The detained DAI subcontractor was not working for any intelligence service,” Boomgard maintained.

As the case has dragged on, speculation has grown that Cuba might want to use him as leverage to highlight the case of five Cuban intelligence agents who are serving long prison sentences in the United States for infiltrating anti-Castro groups Havana says were behind a 1990s bombing campaign against hotels on the island.

Cuba considers the men heroes and has long called for their release.

Crowley said Wednesday that the contractor was in Cuba “to encourage and help facilitate Cuban citizens being able to do what citizens in most other parts of the world get to do: connect with the Internet, be able to communicate, be able to offer and express their views on a variety of subjects.”

And, he said those efforts would continue.

Relations between the United States and Cuba — once thought to be on the mend — have taken a nosedive in recent weeks. On Tuesday, Cuba called in the top U.S. diplomat on the island to formally protest the country’s inclusion on a list of countries whose citizens will be subjected to increased scrutiny when flying to the United States.

Associated Press writer Paul Haven contributed to this report from Havana.