[Cincinatus' Wife]

Castro: Bush is "stupid" - Cuban Crackdown Deepens Strains With U.S.*** *** The Bush administration, unhappy about the Cuban action, is contemplating ways to make Fidel Castro's government pay a price. It also has undercut embargo foes on Capitol Hill. "The embargo is still a bad idea, but changing it isn't going to happen any time soon," Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said Monday. Brian Alexander of the anti-embargo Cuba Policy Foundation said some House members who had entertained dissidents not long ago at a restaurant in Cuba's capital, Havana, were appalled to learn the waiters were state security agents who testified against the activists at their trials. Cuba contends these dissidents, many of them independent journalists or directors of independent libraries, were subversives working hand-in-hand with the U.S. diplomatic office in Havana, led by career diplomat James Cason. Cuba says the dissidents were funded by the U.S. mission; the State Department denies it and says the mission's role is to seek a peaceful transition to democracy.

Neither Washington nor Havana pays much attention to diplomatic decorum nowadays. In Powell's references to the Cuban leader, he goes straight to "Castro," skipping "president." Castro says President Bush is "stupid." Each side has imposed travel restrictions on the others' diplomats lately. Cuba has even talked about shutting down the U.S. office in Havana and bringing its own envoys home from Washington.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Castro crackdown has dismayed countries that thought the regime was easing its hard line.*** For Brian Alexander of the Cuban Policy Foundation, a group that wants the trade embargo lifted, Castro's charm offensive hit its peak last October when Havana hosted an expo of American agricultural products, which are exempted from the trade embargo. "The Cubans got quite a lot of publicity at the expo, and there was a sense that the movement to end the embargo was growing stronger," Mr. Alexander says. "Now they have hit their base of support in Washington with a sledgehammer. Politically, Cuba is making the embargo a third rail. Politicians who went out on a limb for Cuba are feeling stunned and apprehensive."

Indeed, less than a year ago, the House of Representatives voted to block the administration from enforcing a ban on Americans traveling to Cuba, a measure that was interpreted as bolstering support for lifting the embargo. But last week, the mood on Capitol Hill shifted dramatically. Both supporters and opponents of the embargo in the House voted unanimously, 414-0, to condemn Cuba. For all the criticism of the political crackdown, many see recent events as just one example of a more far-reaching curtailment of freedom on the island as Castro consolidates power for his eventual successor, considered to be his brother Raul.

For many, it began with a widely publicized antidrug campaign of in January. Days later, Cuba's state-run media carried stories of a wider crackdown against black-marketeering enterprises, from massive garment presses and private kitchens to unlicensed landlords and repair shops outside the island's state-run economy. The few licensed private entrepreneurs on the island also came under scrutiny. Most of the recently convicted dissidents were charged under Law 88, which promises tough sentences for Cubans convicted of conspiring with a foreign power. Those convictions and the summary execution of the boat hijackers, coming after a number of other incidents in which hijacked Cuban airplanes were given sanctuary in Florida, were seen as a reminder that Castro was unwilling to brook dissent. "This is the sort of housecleaning that other dictators from Stalin to Mao have been willing to do before they go," Mr. Suchlicki says.***