Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 7, 1995                   TAG: 9510110026
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE GEDDA ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CUBA SHOWS NO SIGNS OF OPENING TO CLINTON PROPOSAL

Increasing contact between ordinary Cubans and Americans is the newest wrinkle in U.S. policy toward Cuba. President Fidel Castro, however, already has said he sees the idea as just another gambit to undermine his revolution.

And if Castro refuses to cooperate, he won't get any complaints from Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, who considers the initiative evidence of administration weakness toward Cuba.

President Clinton announced Friday he was easing restrictions on travel to Cuba so that American educators, clerics, environmentalists and human rights groups can work with independent counterparts in Cuba, which have been increasing.

The goal, Clinton said, is to ``promote democracy and the free flow of ideas.'' But to accomplish it, Clinton will need the cooperation of the Cuban government, and Castro made clear two months ago he was not interested.

Castro said the concept was written by ``those who want to infiltrate us, weaken us, to create all types of counter-revolutionary organizations, and to destabilize the country regardless of the consequences.''

He said Cuba would welcome an expert in computers or another technological area ``that has nothing to do with ideology.''

Castro may have in mind the experience of Poland, where a mushrooming of contacts between nonofficial Poles and Americans is widely believed to have heightened opposition to the regime. In 1989, Poland became the first communist country to turn to democracy as a result of rebellion from within.

Cuban Foreign Ministry spokesman Miguel Alfonso called Clinton's announcement meaningless because it has no impact on the U.S. embargo against Cuba.

Jose Hernandez, president of the Cuban-American National Foundation, an anti-communist group, said Friday in Miami he doubts Castro will go along with Clinton's proposal.

``The American people will only be able to communicate with the Cuban people if Castro allows it - and that's a big if,'' Hernandez said.

The foundation's representative in Washington, Jose Cardenas, said he has no objection to increased contacts so long as leftist groups masquerading as apolitical organizations are not permitted to roam Cuba at will, serving as defenders of the regime.

He said the new policy will have ``maximum effect'' only if it is implemented ``in concert with an intensification of economic pressure on Castro.''

Dole came out in strong opposition to Clinton's initiative and agreed with Cardenas that a tighter embargo is the answer.

A co-author of pending legislation to accomplish that, Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., said the initiative suggests Clinton is eager to have normal relations with Castro. ``I am very distressed,'' said Burton, chairman of the House International Relations subcommittee on Latin America.

Dole suggested that the easing of travel restrictions is the work of the ``many advisers who favor normalizing relations with Cuba.''

Another Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, accused Clinton of ``putting out the welcome mat to Castro instead of tightening the noose around his aging neck.''