Flaunting Cuba's improved ties to its Caribbean neighbors, President Fidel Castro leaves Wednesday on a tour of Jamaica, Barbados and the only place where Cuban and U.S. troops ever battled: Gre
nada.

Castro, who appears to be traveling more these days than at any other time in his 39 years in power, will also visit the Dominican Republic in late August and South Africa and Portugal later in the year.

His trip comes as Cubans endure a tough summer: a calamitous sugar harvest, a drought in eastern Guantanamo province, and fuel shortages that are causing long power blackouts and reducing weekend bus services to the beach.

``It works for American politicians -- traveling abroad to boost domestic morale -- so maybe Fidel is trying it, said one U.S. businessman who has extensive contacts among Havana officials.

But Castro is likely to see mostly happy faces on his six-day tour of three Caribbean nations that have traditionally opposed the U.S. embargo and more recently helped Havana shore up its relations with Europe.

``This is symbolic payback for the Caribbean's support, since Cuban trade with the islands is still relatively low, said Florida International University professor Anthony Maingot, who specializes in Caribbean issues.

A new Cuban role

Caribbean nations last month helped Cuba win observer status under the so-called Lome Agreement, which gives exports from former European colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific preferential treatment in European markets. Cuba has also been trying to join the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the area's top regional forum.

Castro's most significant stop in coming days will be Grenada, where a Marxist coup in 1979, along with the victory of Nicaragua's Sandinista rebels the same year, marked the high-water mark of Cuba's revolutionary expansion.

Marxist radicals later executed Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and others in a 1983 putsch that triggered a U.S. invasion -- and sparked a battle between U.S. and Cuban forces at the island's new international airport.

Most of the Cubans surrendered and were later flown back home. Castro later publicly punished the Cubans' commander, Col. Pedro Tortolo, for capitulating instead of following Havana orders to ``fight to the end.

Castro will unveil a monument to the Cuban workers who built a good part of the Port Salines airport and meet with Bishop's mother, Alimenta, during his stay in Grenada next Sunday and Monday.

A mixed welcome

Opposition politicians jailed by Bishop's regime have vowed to protest during Castro's visit. But Prime Minister Keith Mitchell, who visited Havana recently, has forecast ``a pleasant welcome when the Cuban leader arrives.

Castro will be flying in from Barbados, where he is to join the annual Aug. 1 march marking the emancipation of slaves and unveil a monument to the 73 people killed in the terrorist bombing of a Cuban airliner nearby in 1976.

Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile reportedly linked to a dozen bombings around Havana last summer, was charged but never convicted in that attack. He has both denied and accepted involvement in the explosion.

Before Barbados, Castro will spend Wednesday to Saturday in Jamaica, which he visited in 1970 and again briefly just last year to attend funeral services for a longtime ally, former Prime Minister Michael Manley.

Castro will be in the Dominican Republic on Aug. 20-22 to attend a summit of Caribbean leaders and meet Dominican President Leonel Fernandez, who reestablished relations with Cuba in April after a break of nearly 40 years.