Published Saturday, August 21, 1999, in the Miami Herald

Candidate takes a hard line on Castro

By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS
Herald Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- Heeding anti-Castro voices in Florida, presidential contender George W. Bush is supporting existing sanctions against Cuba until Havana holds free elections, allows free speech and liberates political prisoners, aides said this week.

"In a George W. Bush administration, you're going to have a president who's going to take steps to help the internal opposition and insist on those three points,'' said Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Miami Republican.

That hard-line stance, written into U.S. law in 1996, has been undercut in recent months by Clinton administration efforts to expand cultural, academic and anti-narcotic contacts with the Cubans, and by a lopsided Senate vote in favor of allowing the regulated sale of food and medicines to Cuba.

Diaz-Balart, a fierce critic of Cuban President Fidel Castro, said a George W. Bush administration would freeze such overtures and halt further erosion of the decades-old trade embargo.

"We have a track record with this Democratic administration,'' he said. "They are people who are appeasing Castro, and now they are trying to circumvent the three conditions and lift the embargo unilaterally.''

The White House denied this week that it is seeking to lift the embargo.

"I don't see that Castro has done anything to deserve lifting of an embargo today,'' said National Security Council spokesman David Leavy.

Diaz-Balart, the Havana-born son and grandson of Cuban lawmakers, has emerged as an early advisor on Cuba policy for Bush, whose campaign aides praise his input.

"He's an expert on U.S.-Cuban relations,'' said Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett. ``Gov. Bush is fortunate to have his advice and support and will continue to seek it throughout the campaign.''

Diaz-Balart sent the Texas governor a memo in December outlining his three criteria for improving ties with Cuba. Bush responded a month later; Diaz-Balart's aides said they were gratified to see the candidate incorporate that position outright.

Diaz-Balart is quick to admit that the candidate's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, is his top consultant on Latin America policy. Moreover, Diaz-Balart said, he works ``as one'' with Miami's other Cuban American lawmaker, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Ros-Lehtinen, however, does not consider herself an advisor to Bush, though she has endorsed his candidacy, said spokesman Rudy Fernandez.

Generally, Bush is relying on two former Republican officials for foreign policy guidance: George Shultz, secretary of state under President Reagan, and Condoleeza Rice, a national security aide under President Bush.

Shultz was one of several prominent Republicans who last year advocated a serious reexamination of U.S.-Cuba policy by a bipartisan commission headed by Virginia Sen. John Warner. In a letter to President Clinton, Shultz said such a commission ``would provide your administration and the Congress critically important insights needed to improve the policy's effectiveness.''

But Clinton nixed the proposal, at the strong urging of Vice President Al Gore, who, as the leading Democratic candidate for president, appears eager to burnish his own anti-Castro credentials.

Gore's foreign policy advisor, Leon Fuerth, was not available for comment Friday. But Cuba-watchers say the vice president, eager to woo South Floridians, might embrace a policy similar to Bush's.