SECTION: News; Pg. 3A

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HEADLINE: Carter's Cuba trip mostly symbolic;
Little of substance expected from his visit with Castro

BYLINE: MIKE WILLIAMS

SOURCE: Cox Washington Bureau

BODY:
Havana --- Former President Jimmy Carter arrives here today for a historic six-day tour hosted by one of America's most persistent foes: Communist dictator Fidel Castro.

As the first visit by a sitting or former U.S. president to the island since Castro's 1959 revolution, the trip is expected to be heavy on symbolism but short on substantive changes in Castro's policies or in the official U.S. line toward the island.

Still, Carter will spend a day meeting with human rights activists and religious groups. He also is scheduled to give a live TV address Tuesday at the University of Havana, a rare opportunity to deliver a message unfettered by Cuban censors. "It is a most unusual visit, but I wouldn't expect any miracles," said Wayne Smith, head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana during the Carter presidency and now with the Center for International Policy, a Washington think tank. "Carter is not going as a representative of the Bush administration, so the trip does not imply any improvement in U.S.-Cuba relations."

The trip comes as tensions between the countries seem to be rising. Although dozens of members of Congress have traveled to Cuba in recent months as part of a growing call for lifting the 40-year-old U.S. embargo, the Bush administration seems determined to maintain a hard line. Last week, a senior official said the Cubans may be developing offensive biological warfare agents, drawing a firm denial from Cuban officials.

President Bush himself plans to travel to Miami soon to celebrate Cuba's 100th anniversary of independence from Spain. He will meet with South Florida Cuban exiles whom Castro castigates as the "Miami Mafia."

But Carter's trip is stirring excitement in Cuba and drawing heavy international press coverage. More than 100 reporters from as far away as Japan are expected to cover the visit.

The former president has his own peculiar history with Castro: The 1980 Mariel boatlift saw more than 125,000 Cubans --- some released from jails and mental institutions --- suddenly rush to South Florida after Castro gave the green light for people to leave the island. But Carter also made significant changes in U.S. policy toward Cuba, negotiating the opening of interests sections in Washington and Havana, which function as de facto embassies and enhance communication. Thousands of Cuban political prisoners were released during Carter's presidency, and Cuban families in the United States were allowed to begin visiting the island for the first time since Castro's revolution.

Still, Carter has cautioned that he expects no changes in Castro's policies as a result of his visit.

"Our two countries have not yet developed a constructive relationship and, although official interest sections were established while I was president, for the last 41 years our two nations have not had normal diplomatic relations," he said in a statement.

Carter is making the journey at Castro's invitation, extended when the two attended the funeral of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in October 2000. The Bush administration approved the trip, but officials have said little about it other than to express hopes that Carter might further the causes of democracy and human rights.
 
U.S. cracks down on visits

Carter will follow a stream of members of Congress who have visited Cuba, most meeting with Castro and later issuing statements calling for an end to the embargo. The visit also comes on the heels of another significant development: the sight of U.S. ships docking at Cuban ports and off-loading food for the first time in more than 40 years. In 2000, Congress approved humanitarian sales of food and medicine to Cuba, but until last November's Hurricane Michelle caused $1.8 billion in damage on the island, Castro refused to purchase American products because the Cubans were required to pay in cash.

Since then, $73 million in U.S. goods have been sold to Cuba, adding momentum to farm state lobbyists and business representatives who argue that if the United States has full relations with Communist regimes in Vietnam and China, then Cuba should be no different.

Even as some Republicans have joined the move to ease relations with Cuba, the Bush administration has cracked down on Americans who have traveled to the island in violation of U.S. Treasury regulations.

Americans are allowed to visit Cuba to see family or, under special licenses, to attend cultural or educational programs, but spending money for general tourism on an unlicensed trip is barred. There are estimates that in addition to 137,000 Cuban-Americans who visited family, another 137,000 Americans made the trip legally last year, with 27,000 more going illegally.

Bush's firm stand on Cuba was also signaled by his January appointment of Otto Reich, a Cuban exile and staunch Castro foe, as the State Department's top policy-maker for Latin America. With congressional approval of Reich in doubt, Bush made the appointment while Congress was in recess.
 
Polls favor closer ties

Some observers say Bush may feel he owes a debt to Florida's Cuban exiles for their support in his razor-thin 2000 election victory. Bush's younger brother Jeb is Florida's governor and faces a November re-election bid in which South Florida's 600,000 Cuban exiles will play a key role.

"National polls show that a majority of Americans believe our policy toward Cuba is out of date and ineffective," Smith said. "But the Bush administration has chosen to focus instead on this small group of Cuban exiles in Florida and their impact on the elections."

U.S. politics aside, Carter's visit will center on fairly innocuous trips to schools, farms and hospitals. There will also be meetings with Castro and other top Cuban government officials.

Some Cuban exiles, who met with Carter prior to the trip, say they hope the visit might produce something positive.

"You have one of the world's greatest promoters of human rights meeting with the world's greatest human rights violator," said Joe Garcia, spokesman for the Cuban-American National Foundation, a prominent exile group. "If President Carter does not abandon his great legacy, which is putting human rights on the international stage, it could be a very significant visit."
 
on ajc.com Go online Sunday evening for an update on former President Carter's first day in Cuba.

GRAPHIC: Photo:
Friends Olivia Castano (left) and Balbina Perez walk past a billboard of dictator Fidel Castro denouncing war and terrorism after a visit Saturday to Havana's "Ice Cream Park." But there are few signs in the Cuban capital of Jimmy Carter's historic visit, which begins today. Page A4 / DAVID TULIS / Staff

LOAD-DATE: May 12, 2002