ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 29, 1996 TAG: 9602290077
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: From Cox News Service and The Associated Press
In a swift rebuke of the weekend downing of two American civilian planes, legislators agreed Wednesday to tighten economic sanctions on Havana.
Both houses of Congress are expected to pass the so-called Libertad bill early next week, and the White House said President Clinton would sign it to punish Cuban President Fidel Castro. The shoot-down killed four American citizens on Saturday.
``We are telling Castro that his days of dictatorship and tyranny are numbered,'' said Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., who co-sponsored the bill. ``This bill will deny Fidel Castro the lifeline of his bloody regime - hard currency.''
The Libertad - Spanish for liberty - bill would cast in law the 34-year-old embargo prohibiting U.S. companies from doing business with Cuba until the one-party communist state undergoes a complete transition to democratic rule.
That strips the White House of the option of incrementally easing the embargo as a way to reward modest, step-by-step political and economic reforms. Under the Libertad bill, Clinton would need congressional approval to ease sanctions.
The White House had threatened to veto the bill last fall because of a provision involving lawsuits against foreign investors in Cuba. The bill would let American citizens sue companies who use property confiscated during the 31/2 decades of Castro's rule. It also would bar from the United States foreigners who benefit from confiscated American property.
In a compromise, the president was given authority to waive the litigation right, but for no more than six months at a time, when the national interest is involved.
``The president, in light of the incident Saturday, believes tightening the embargo on Cuba is a necessary step now, both to deal with this incident and promote our overall goal of democratic change in Cuba,'' White House press secretary Mike McCurry said.
Versions of the bill have passed both houses. Wednesday, a conference committee hammered out compromise legislation the committee members felt confident would be acceptable in both the House and Senate.
Sen. Charles Robb, D-Va., one of the conferees, said it "sends a strong message to the international community" in response to Cuba's "tragic, premeditated killing."
The bill urges the president to seek an international embargo against the Castro government and authorizes him to assist the democratic movement there.
It also links U.S. aid to the former Soviet states to their assistance to Cuba and tightens the ban on buying sugar products of Cuban origin.
In developments Wednesday:
U.S. officials planned to try to avert another incident off Cuba's coast next weekend. Exile leaders plan to send two planes and a flotilla of boats to the area where the two Cessnas were downed. The Coast Guard will try to mark the area to minimize the possibility that the group will stray into Cuban territory.
Cuba's foreign minister claimed that the exile group whose planes were shot down had been warned about flying over Cuban airspace, but ignored the advice because it wanted ``martyrs.'' Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina said aircraft from U.S. territory had violated Cuban airspace 25 times in the past 20 months, in some cases buzzing Havana.
Robaina said pilot Juan Pablo Roque, who returned to Cuba last week, had warned the exile group, Brothers to the Rescue, that Cuba would trap any plane violating Cuban sovereignty. The minister said Brothers to the Rescue ignored Roque ``because they needed martyrs to increase the marketing of the organization.''
In a TV interview in Havana on Monday, Roque said he had been a double agent spying on exile groups, including Brothers to the Rescue.
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CANADIAN PRESS PHOTO. Military students chant at a rallyby CNBWednesday in Havana, where speakers defended Cuba's right to attack
foreign planes. color.