WASHINGTON -- A bill drafted by Sen. Jesse Helms and the Cuban American National Foundation calls for the U.S. government to provide up to $100 million over four years in food and medicine to ``victims of political repression in Cuba.''

The proposal would authorize federal aid to Cuba for the first time since the 1959 revolution and is aimed, proponents said, at blunting criticism of the long-standing U.S. trade embargo.

Cuban President Fidel Castro already has said he will reject U.S. aid, asserting that his nation wants trade with the United States, not charity.

But in refusing such aid, Castro will forfeit his ability to blame U.S. economic pressure for Cubans' misery, said Marc Thiessen, spokesman for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which Helms chairs. The legislation is slated to be unveiled today; The Herald obtained an advance copy.

`Win-win situation'

``We want the Cuban people to know that the U.S. wants to send them $100 million in free food and medicine, and it's up to Fidel Castro whether they can have it or not,'' Thiessen said. ``If Castro says no, then he's got no excuses. This is a win-win situation for Congress.''

Thiessen insisted that the bill's backers want to see the aid flow to Cuba, even though the legislation includes measures to place Castro on the defensive, including a demand that the U.S. attorney general indict the Cuban leader for his role in shooting down in 1996 two unarmed planes piloted by the exile group Brothers to the Rescue.

The proposal also calls on the U.S. government to begin broadcasting Radio and TV Marti from the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and requires that the administration report twice a year on everything from exploitative labor conditions to Cuba's alleged role in narcotics trafficking and money laundering. It asserts the right to revoke direct flights between the United States and Cuba -- which President Clinton reauthorized in March -- if the U.S. aid finds its way into Cuban government hands.

The bill broadly defines victims of repression in Cuba, making virtually all Cubans -- including military members -- potential recipients of the aid, excepting government officials. It would draw up to $25 million a year from its foreign-aid budget to provide independent organizations with food and medicine or cash to purchase them. The bill's authors have so far endorsed one such organization to deliver them: the relief agency of the Roman Catholic Church.

Return to policy arena

The bill marks the return of the foundation to the policy arena amid a flurry of activity after Pope John Paul II's visit to the island in January. The foundation, the most influential exile lobby, has struggled to reassert itself in the wake of the death of its chairman, Jorge Mas Canosa, in November.

``The hope for a better future among the Cuban people generated by the pope is quickly dissipating as a result of Castro's intransigence and international apathy,'' the foundation said in a statement. ``This critical bill will send a powerful message to the Cuban people that the United States intends to stand fully beside them in their struggle for freedom.''

But the bill has yet to win the endorsement of Congress' three Cuban-American lawmakers, who presented a competing proposal last month. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Bob Menendez would compel the President to use all means available, including covert methods, to see that cash and communications equipment reach former political prisoners and other ``extreme victims of political repression,'' a smaller group than that targeted by Helms.