Cuban-American lawmakers are beginning an offensive to persu

[El Presidente]

Cuban-American lawmakers are beginning an offensive to persuade foreign governments to take a hard line on Cuba.

By PABLO BACHELET

[email protected]

WASHINGTON -- After beating back efforts to ease U.S. sanctions on Cuba in Congress, Cuban-American lawmakers are embarking on a major push to isolate the Castro government on the international stage.

Miami Republican Reps. Lincoln and Mario Díaz-Balart and New Jersey Democrat Albio Sires are today wrapping up a three-day trip to the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. The trip will be followed by another to Latin America in the coming weeks, according to members of the delegation.

The trip's organizers say the idea is to raise the international profile of dissidents on the island, call on countries to settle for nothing less than free elections in Cuba after Fidel Castro dies and present a united front of major dissident and exile groups before the world community.

But it will likely be an uphill battle. While the former Soviet-bloc nations are generally receptive, other European and Latin American nations are more skeptical, believing that U.S. sanctions have not worked and more engagement with Havana stands a better chance of bringing democratic change.

''One of the reasons why the regime has lasted so long is the lack of international solidarity, especially in Latin America,'' Lincoln Díaz-Balart told The Miami Herald by phone from Budapest. ``And so the role of Europe, and especially East and Central Europe, is extraordinarily important.''

He said the effort in Latin America will be ''intensified'' because ''the timing is propitious and necessary.'' He declined to say which Latin American countries would be visited.

In a gesture thick with historical symbolism, the group is to travel today with Polish President Lech Kaczynski to Lublin in southeastern Poland to commemorate the 1982 deaths of three anti-communist protesters.

Two dissident leaders in Cuba -- Martha Beatriz Roque and Jorge García Pérez, known as ''Antúnez'' -- are expected to call in during the ceremonies. Several Miami exile activists, including Sylvia Iriondo of Mothers and Women Against Repression and Javier de Céspedes of the Directorio Democrático Cubano, traveled to Poland for the event.

The group will also reaffirm the Agreement for Democracy in Cuba. Originally drafted in 1998 ahead of Pope John Paul II's trip to Cuba, the 10-point document calls for, among other things, free elections on the island and the release of political prisoners. Organizers said more than 120 organizations, both in Cuba and abroad, have signed it.

Camila Gallardo, a spokeswoman for the Cuban American National Foundation, said her group did not sign the document in 1998 but would do so now if asked.

The emphasis on the international front marks a shift of priorities for Cuban-American lawmakers, who focused their efforts in the first part of the year in fighting back congressional initiatives to ease some sanctions against the island. Opponents of President Bush's tough line against Castro had predicted that the new Democratic majority in Congress would be more receptive to the relaxations.

Instead, amendments that would have allowed more agricultural trade with the island and cut aid to Cuban pro-democracy groups on the island and in Miami were defeated in the House.

Cuban-American lawmakers said international pressure on Havana will play a critical role after the death of Fidel Castro, who has been suffering from an undisclosed intestinal ailment since last summer. Spain in particular angered many dissidents and the Bush administration when foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos visited Cuba in April and then campaigned to ease European Union sanctions against the island.

''When the issue of Spain arises, my comment is we are at the same crossroads as Spain was after 45 years of the dictator [Francisco] Franco,'' said Sires, who led the delegation. He said the European Union at the time pressed Madrid to take a democratic path.

Spain's efforts have failed so far, in part because of opposition from former Soviet-bloc countries like the Czech Republic and Hungary.

This is not the first time Eastern European nations have expressed support for exile groups, and Cuban officials have attacked Prague as a stooge of U.S. interests. In October last year, several top officials from Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Lithuania took part in a seminar on Cuba's post-Castro transition held in Miami.

This week, the congressional delegation met with top government officials and nongovernmental groups in Prague. In Budapest, they met with the five main parties, all of whom expressed their support for democracy in Cuba.

The delegation thanked Hungary for taking in 29 Cuban refugees held at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantánamo, Cuba. The decision prompted Cuba to call Hungary an ''imperial accomplice'' of Washington and ''servile'' to its ''powerful and aggressive master,'' according to The Associated Press.

''You know what's very refreshing? Here they get it,'' Mario Díaz-Balart said. ``They're not swayed or impressed by the lies of the dictatorship.''

Lincoln Díaz-Balart says the Eastern Europeans should ''increase their leadership'' in the European Union and European Parliament because of their ``knowledge of transitions and their moral authority and experience.''

But the international campaign also faces difficult challenges, especially in Latin America, where U.S. sanctions on Cuba are unpopular.

When the embargo against Cuba is brought up, Mario Díaz-Balart said, the group urges their foreign counterparts to think of ways they can help that does not involve sanctions.

Beyond the Eastern Europeans, only a handful of governments like Costa Rica and El Salvador have spoken out. Cuban officials are well-received in many nations and Havana receives dozens of delegations, from Kuwait to China.

Nations like Spain, Brazil and Canada believe publicly attacking the Castro government will only anger it more rather than spur it to give Cubans more freedoms.

[tigger]

Interesting read Rob.

It sickens me that taxpayer money is being used to fund these political buffoons' "careers."

Commerce is the answer here as far as I'm concerned.

Depriving the good and decent people of a nation because we don't like their government is perverse.

[tandblov]

The Diaz-Belarts are Castro's nephews and are complete embarassments to both Americans and Cubans IMNSHO.

[Jimmy2]

This is a failed policy now the next chapter turn the heat up because Castro might be dying nothing will change until we have dialogue?

This embargo had nothing to do with the Cuban People in Fla though they have numbers in Florida it means votes so they are using the Gov for there agenda and the Gov is using them for their votes.

This Embargo was placed limitedly in 1959 because American business were kicked out of Cuban and land taken over.

Kennedy signed a full Embargo because of the missile crisis .

Also Batista was just as bad as Castro and most people were kicked out because of there corruption and being affiliated with him.

I would love a free Cuba who would not living in America but its to late for Cuba as the Embargo has not put a dent in the Gov there.

The only thing it has done was hurt the people there and that's what it was not put in place for.

Also with dialogue and better relations you will now hurt Hugo Chavez in Venezuela using Cuba and America and their rift for over 45 years to help his cause.

Dialogue !!

[anacostiakat]

How misguided is this? We need a movement to beat back the cuban-american lawmakers who are beginning this offensive.

[Colt45]

» How misguided is this? We need a movement to beat back the cuban-american

» lawmakers who are beginning this offensive.

Spoken like a true communist!!

It is a bit ironic though - at least in the U.S. they are free to voice these opinions.

[FLitiGator]

» The Diaz-Belarts are Castro's nephews and are complete embarassments to

» both Americans and Cubans IMNSHO.

That's really all that needs to be said about them. They were beneficiaries of the graft and corruption before Castro and were pissed that he took it for himself under the guise of the Revolution.

As a Floridian I'd have more respect for the exiles if they had stayed in Cuba and worked to change that country from the inside. The Czechs did just that ie the Velvet Revolution, and present day Cubans are doing it now with the Varela project.

It will be even more disgusting when the exiles come running back after the Castros are gone (Fidel and Raul) and try and kick out the "squatters" living in their old homes.