U.S. pressed to free Cuba grant money

Published Thursday, December 4, 1997, in the Miami Herald

U.S. pressed to free Cuba grant money

By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS
Herald Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- Prodded by anti-Castro lawmakers, the Clinton administration is scrambling to disburse $1.5 million in funds earmarked for democracy-building efforts in Cuba before a mid-January deadline, congressional sources said.

Nearly a dozen Cuban exile and rights advocacy groups are in line for the federal funds, authorized by the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, but never distributed. Another $2 million has been budgeted for 1998.

By law, the money is to be spent to distribute published material in Cuba, provide aid to political dissidents and their families, bolster democratic forces on the island and prepare for a future election.

But 20 months after the approval of Helms-Burton, the U.S. Agency for International Development has delivered only one grant: $500,000 to Freedom House, a New York-based rights watchdog.

Rep. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who foresees allocating $2 million a year to such efforts, and Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., have pressured AID to free up the grant money. Helms, the influential chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has withheld approval of other AID projects pending action on the Cuba program.

``The bottom line is, I think, they [AID officials] haven't had the motivation,'' Menendez said. The projects, he asserted, ``will show the positive side of our desire to promote peaceful change in Cuba.''

Vice President Al Gore, a presumed presidential candidate in 2000, is now pushing AID for a quick solution. Gore planned to announce grant disbursements with Menendez before mid-January, in order to blunt criticism of the administration's enforcement of Helms-Burton, the Capitol Hill sources said.

President Clinton must decide by Jan. 15 whether to suspend the Title III sanctions of Helms-Burton for six more months. Cuban exile groups have criticized the president's repeated suspension of the sanctions, which would allow Americans to file lawsuits against foreign companies that invest in confiscated Cuban property.

Mark Schneider, AID's director for Latin America, attributed the delay to careful scrutiny of proposals and a ``learning curve'' for new applicants.

``In all of this the Congress and we obviously are concerned to ensure that this program is effective and meets the objective of promoting a peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba,'' Schneider said.

So far, AID has approved only two new grants, though the funds have not yet been disbursed. They are:

$335,000 to the International Republican Institute and the Miami-based Cuban Revolutionary Democratic Directorate. Their proposal includes creating working groups and solidarity committees in support of Cuban democrats in Latin America.

$172,000 to Partners for the Americas, a group that forges links between Latin countries and U.S. states. Its goal is long-term: to create links with nongovernmental organizations in Cuba and establish a network of Cuban professionals.