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Thousands rally on Calle Ocho - Continuing call to change Cuba's regime*** A 12-block-long surge of demonstrators, most of them Cuban Americans, flowed across the heart of Little Havana on Saturday to pump up support for a litany of struggles that stretched from the future of Cuba to the war in Iraq. With chants of ''Long Live America!'' and ''Long Live A Free Cuba!'' they applauded the Bush administration's tough stance against terrorism and likened Cuba's Fidel Castro to Iraq's Saddam Hussein. But the sea of red, white and blue flags along Southwest Eighth Street, known more commonly as Calle Ocho, also conveyed one distinct message: that the exile community in Miami has not shifted to a more moderate position in bringing about democratic reform in Cuba, despite recent polls indicating that today's exiles favor a more pragmatic approach.

''All those people going around with their little surveys should take a look at Calle Ocho,'' an animated U.S. Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, R-Miami, said to resounding applause. ``The exile community does not get confused. It does not make mistakes. The ones who are mistaken are those who are trying to discourage us.''

Carlos Saladrigas, chairman of a prominent Cuban-American organization that has commissioned several polls on the exile community, said the rally did not contradict the results of surveys by his group and The Herald. ''To pretend that a march or a demonstration is an indicator of the will of the majority is inaccurate and even demagogy,'' said Saladrigas, chairman of the Cuba Study Group. ``Polls are a statistical analysis with a high degree of accuracy. The polls indicate an overwhelming rejection of Fidel Castro and his regime and an overwhelming support of dissidents on the island. The more subtle change in Cuban Miami reflects different tactics for achieving democratic reform in Cuba.''

Some analysts said the show of support on Calle Ocho also was a display of political power. ''What we're reminded is that what matters in politics is the voters, and these are the voters,'' said Dario Moreno, a political science professor and director of Metropolitan Center, a Florida International University institute that studies the politics, demographics and the economy of South Florida.

Miami police estimated the crowd at 40,000, with marchers lined along Southwest Eighth Street between Fourth and 16th avenues. Organizers were tallying their own crowd estimate Sunday evening but said they believed the figure to be considerably higher. Díaz-Balart was joined at the demonstration by his brother U.S. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, R-Miami, a freshman in Congress, and U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami. Saturday's gathering comes as more than 600 exiles prepare to travel to Havana next month to meet with Cuban officials at the ''Nation and Emigration'' conference scheduled to take place April 11-13. Also fueling the debate is the arrest of nearly 80 dissidents on the island.***

Cuba - Saddam and Fidel are birds of a feather Despite existing half a world apart, Iraqis and Cubans have many things in common. Both are ruled by autocratic tyrants, both are poor and hungry, both must watch what they say about their leaders and both are denied ordinary human rights.

With the world's attention focused on the war in Iraq, Fidel Castro appears to be taking the opportunity to make life even more difficult for Cubans who don't agree with him. In recent days he has been clamping down on their activities and making dozens of nighttime arrests on trumped-up charges. Pro-democracy dissidents, journalists and intellectuals are being seized at gunpoint and their homes searched. Some face 20-year sentences for their alleged crimes. Castro has also forbidden U.S. diplomats to travel freely about the island. ***