Democracy Movement founder Ramón Saúl Sánchez unveiled his latest seaborne scheme to rattle Communist Cuba on Wednesday: He plans to buy a used cargo ship, outfit it as a floating medical clinic and circle the island from international waters with offers of aid.

``We are launching a new and much more ambitious project that could also become another symbol of the struggle of the human being to help others,'' said Sánchez, unveiling a fundraising effort by the movement that periodically stages protest flotillas.

His target: To raise about $150,000 to buy the ship, retrofit it and stock it with medical supplies, by mid-December.

His objective: To draw attention to Cuba's so-called medical apartheid system, in which dollar-paying foreigners can get treatment that exiles say ordinary Cubans cannot.

Ideally, Sánchez said, the Cuban government would permit the ship to dock in Cuba and offer free medical care to Cubans ``without restrictions, humiliations and discrimination'' as part of an outreach program from Miami exiles.

But, by his script, he expects Fidel Castro to forbid entry.

PERMANENT PRESENCE

So, he said, the ship would maintain a permanent presence 12 miles off Cuba's coast, also available to come to the aid of other Caribbean nations in the event of natural disaster.

Sánchez announced the idea in a fundraising appeal from his office at 8150 SW Eighth St., saying he first mentioned the idea on WWFE-La Poderosa (670 AM) a few days ago -- and an elderly woman dropped off an envelope with a few dollars in it.

The idea would be to buy a 170- to 200-foot cargo ship or merchant marine vessel, used, for $125,000-$150,000 and then spend $25,000 to outfit it with up to 500,000 pounds of supplies. It would be painted white and bear an international symbol designating humanitarianism.

Sánchez estimated it would take six to eight crew members to keep the ship at sea.

Physicians from the community had already expressed willingness to do medical stints, he said, but none would be permanently posted there. Instead, doctors could be ferried by helicopter in cases of emergency. The movement's ``air wing,'' made up of about a dozen small private aircraft, would drop supplies to the ship, he said.

VESSEL UNNAMED

No name has been given to the ship so far, Sánchez said, though ``Democracy Hospital'' is one possibility. Sánchez said he was not concerned that the vessel would become a magnet for rafters who might see it as a way-station to the United States -- or a tempting opportunity to get free medical care.

``We do not want to encourage any exodus from the island. We want to do the opposite,'' he said.