Cuba rounds up dissidents in swipe at new US envoy

The United States faced a diplomatic showdown yesterday with its old adversary Cuba, after Fidel Castro made clear his displeasure with the Bush administration's new envoy. Mr Castro ordered the arrests of dissidents who had made contact with James Cason and imposed strict travel restrictions on all American diplomats on the island.

A government spokesman said "several dozen people directly related to the conspiratorial activities of Mr Cason" would be put on trial.

Members of the US mission in Havana have been told they now have to seek prior approval before travelling outside the area immediately surrounding the capital. They previously had to notify the authorities of such trips but did not have to seek approval for them.

According to Cuban human rights activists, the arrests constitute one of the biggest recent crackdowns on dissidents. "This is the most intense wave of political repression of the last few years. The figure is high. We are talking of two or three dozen arrests," Elizardo Sanchez, a veteran activist, told Reuters. Government supporters argued that the arrests were a response to the blatant efforts by the Bush administration to foment dissent and plot Mr Castro's downfall.

President Bush has taken a noticeably harder line on Cuba than his predecessor, refusing to lift the US embargo and travel restrictions between the two countries. Some members of the president's Republican Party have lumped Cuba, along with newer left-wing governments in Brazil, Ecuador and Venezuela, into a "new axis of evil" to match Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

Mr Cason, who heads the US Interests Section, has become embroiled in awar of words with Mr Castro in recent weeks because of his contacts with leading dissidents. He has been accused of handing out money, a charge he denies, and hatching anti-government plots.

During a meeting with the opposition attended by international journalists last month, Mr Cason said: "The Cuban government is afraid: afraid of freedom of conscience, afraid of freedom of expression, afraid of human rights."

That meeting angered Mr Castro so much that he threatened to close the US mission. "Anyone can see that this is a shameless and a defiant provocation," Mr Castro said. The US State Department described such criticisms as "derogatory".

The US mission's contacts with dissidents were already a point of contention under Mr Cason's predecessor, Vicki Huddleston. But the relationship has caused more serious ructions since Mr Cason's arrival last September. A veteran of US foreign policy in Latin America ­ which has taken a notoriously hard line on any government that smacks of left-wing populism or resistance to US trade and military objectives ­ Mr Cason has prided himself on visiting every inch of the island over the past six months, clocking up more than 6,000 miles of travel.

According to reports in the US media, Mr Cason has not only broadened contact with dissidents. He has also organised the distribution of anti-Castro books and documents and handed out shortwave radios to enable Cubans to listen to anti-government broadcasts from Florida. He has also encouraged anti-government journalists and provided them with the hardware to transmit their reports abroad by e-mail.

There is no disagreement in the United States about the desirability of creating a more open society in Cuba. Last May, in an unprecedented, uncensored broadcast sanctioned by the Castro government, Jimmy Carter, the former US president, gave an address supporting an end to the economic embargo but urging greater civil liberties, including free speech, in Cuba.

Where the Bush administration differs from Mr Carter or Bill Clinton is in its rejection of all dialogue and its openly expressed desire to see Mr Castro's downfall. As in other parts of the world, it seems to prefer the politics of confrontation over negotiation and diplomacy.

The US Interests Section, which was opened by President Carter in 1977, occupies itself principally with migration and visa issues. It has processed more than 125,000 visa and refugee-status applications since 1994 under US-Cuba migration accords.

* A Cuban DC-3 airliner with 35 people aboard landed in Key West, Florida under US military escort in the early hours of this morning, the Federal Aviation Authority said.