VIVA GUANTANAMO LIBRE

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The new plan got the backing of Florida's most important Democrats, Governor Lawton Chiles and Senator Bob Graham, but Republican Senator Jesse Helms, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, blasted Clinton for helping to "keep the Cuban people imprisoned in Castro's tropical Gulag." Officials evaded the question of whether even those who reasonably fear for their lives will be repatriated. "If someone asserts that kind of claim, and is taken back, they're going to get very special treatment" from the 37 U.S. diplomats in Havana, said one senior official. The official stresses that Castro's secret police have not harassed Cubans who have applied for the 20,000 annual departure slots that Washington and Havana agreed to last September. Critics say the U.S. could have squeezed more out of Castro-by insisting that Amnesty International or some other human rights group be allowed to monitor conditions on the island, for example. The U.S. made that demand during the secret talks, but dropped it to get a deal.

The Clinton Administration is also on the verge of allowing broader contacts with Cuba in ways that are consistent with the existing embargo law. U.S. news organizations may be allowed to open bureaus there, for example, and humanitarian groups that work in Cuba may be permitted to receive dollars.

Republicans in Congress regard that approach as hopelessly naive. Some plan legislation that would prevent the Administration from returning refugees to Cuba. Senator Helms and others want to toughen the embargo still further, in part by denying U.S. entry visas to the executives and shareholders of many foreign companies legally doing business in Cuba. That bill is almost certain to pass in some form. But officials say Clinton is likely to veto it-one more sign that the Miami Cubans have lost their friend in the White House. --With reporting by James Carney and Michael Duffy/Washington and Tammerlin Drummond/Guantanamo