The Man Who Would Oust Castro

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HE'S BEEN CALLED BOTH A dictatorial "monster" and a modern-day Jose Marti, | determined to vanquish Fidel Castro just as Marti battled Spain to free Cuba a century ago. Miami millionaire Jorge Mas Canosa is perhaps the most influential Cuban outside Havana. Over the past decade, he has built the Cuban American National Foundation, a lobby group representing Miami's Cuban exiles, into a muscular bullyboy capable of swaying U.S. foreign policy and pressuring governments from Moscow to Mexico City.

But for Mas, that is not enough. He dreams of a house overlooking the bay in his native Santiago de Cuba. He dreams of converting the island back to capitalism. And he dreams of becoming its first democratically elected President when Castro is gone. "I have a right to dream of a model republic for Cuba," he says. "If I'm criticized for that, fine. But the Cuban people themselves think the foundation is the logical option after Castro. We have practically won, and Fidel has lost."

From an office in a Miami industrial park, Mas plots his return with an army of economists, lawyers and corporate executives. A committee of businessmen has drawn up a $15 billion blueprint for economic reconstruction, complete with an inventory of government property to be privatized after Castro's fall. An economic peace corps of 10,000 Cuban-American professionals will be trained to fan out across the island and teach free-market methods to their bewildered communist comrades. Lawyers have drafted principles for a new constitution. Videotapes smuggled into Cuba reassure islanders about the exiles' plans, and the foundation's shortwave radio frequency assaults Cuban airwaves with dissident news and gossip -- and Mas speeches.

Despite the big plans, Mas hedges on his own post-Castro ambitions. "I am not running for President of Cuba, but I am not going to give up my right to run for President," he says. Former friends like banker Raul Masvidal, a co- creator of the foundation who left in a leadership dispute seven years ago, say they are not fooled. "Jorge has always had a well-established agenda of his own," warns Masvidal. "He is on a quest to become the future dictator of Cuba. He is a monster in the making."

Like Fidel, the man he most hates, Mas finds it hard to deal with such criticism. His temper is fiery: he once challenged a local politician to a duel for thwarting a real estate deal. Those who cross him are labeled communists or traitors; private eyes investigate their lives. Last week the foundation threatened to file a suit against public broadcasting stations that aired a documentary by the University of West Florida about the foundation's crusade to free Cuba. When the Miami Herald editorialized against the 32-year- old trade embargo against Cuba, Mas launched a citywide billboard campaign to protest. Anonymous callers phoned in bomb threats, and the paper's vending machines were jammed with feces.