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Fred Barnes: Cuba Libre***But there exists an appalling gap in Bush's policy toward Castro: the treatment of refugees escaping Cuba. Bush has continued the refugee policy of the Clinton administration known as "wet feet, dry feet." Under it, a refugee is sent back to Cuba unless he or she gets a foot on dry American land. This has led to wrenching scenes on Florida's shores of Cubans struggling to reach the beach--and potential freedom--as U.S. Coast Guard personnel battle to keep them in the water. Most refugees, of course, never reach American soil. In July, a dozen Cubans who'd stolen a boat were grabbed by the Coast Guard miles off the Florida shore and, following negotiations with the Cuban government, were returned to Cuba, only to face 10-year jail sentences. Bush officials regarded this as a victory of sorts, since three Cubans trying to reach the United States last spring suffered an even worse fate. They were caught by Castro's forces and executed.

This refugee policy is the result of an agreement between President Clinton and Castro. It caused Elián Gonzáles, who'd been rescued at sea, to be seized from a Miami home and flown back to Cuba. Under it, 20,000 Cubans are allowed to emigrate annually, with Castro deciding who goes and who doesn't. Castro uses the quota as a tool for suppressing dissent. If a Cuban is docile, he may have a chance to leave. But if he presses for freedom in his homeland, his chances are nil. To get out, a Cuban must pipe down. Castro deals with dissidents in other brutal ways. He cracked down on dozens last spring and sentenced them to long jail terms. Meanwhile, their family members lose jobs, their kids are expelled from school, and they lose their homes.

Why is the Bush administration clinging to a Clinton policy that's a matter of presidential discretion, not federal law? Five words: fear of another Mariel boatlift. In 1980, Castro cleaned out his jails and insane asylums and sent a flotilla of some 125,000 refugees to Florida. The sudden influx created some havoc in Miami and even in Arkansas, where violence and rioting by Cubans held at Fort Chafee contributed to Bill Clinton's defeat for reelection as governor. If you've seen the movie "Scarface," which starred Al Pacino as a refugee who becomes a crazed cocaine dealer, you'll understand the trouble that Castro caused in the United States. Averting a repeat of Mariel is the governing principle of Bush's refugee policy.***

Candles burning at both ends, Castro to mark 77th birthday amid crises The daring and vigorous attorney-turned-rebel who marched into Havana decades ago today still sports his trademark olive drab military gear for most political occasions. But the hair and emblematic beard are now gray, the feet drag a bit, and the pace of Castro's legendarily lengthy speeches has slowed. Rumors about his health, a taboo subject, swirl regularly. Rather than avoid the subject, Castro faces it head-on. He insists the Revolution will live on without him. And a few months back he stressed that "my destiny was not to come into the world to rest at the end of my life."

"You have to have passions and dreams," he said recently, but "life has inexorable laws." He promised to stay on as president "until nature itself decides, not a minute less and not a second longer." His frenetic work schedule still includes statistics-laden addresses that go on for hours; meetings with visiting heads of state, politicians and others from the early hours of the morning to the wee hours of the following day; and personal supervision of the implementation of government programs in education and heath care.

But this ideal society concept does not mesh with a complicated and crumbling reality. After 40 years of communism, more than 11 million Cubans do not have their basic needs met. Housing shortages hit crisis levels years ago. Insufficient subsidized food supplies, combined with low salaries that make purchasing nonsubsidized food prohibitive for most, are dawn-to-dusk frustrations for millions. Limits on personal freedoms also take their toll, and these are just the beginning of problems facing Cuba's revolution. The economy is limping, as a tough US economic embargo, combined with a rigid communist bureaucracy here, less tourism and sliding international prices for top export sectors sugar and nickel, have slammed the brakes on growth.

Castro's regime "tends to substitute reality with its own vision ... in a sort of political schizophrenia, an ideological unconciousness that makes it lose all sense of reality," said prominent dissident Elizardo Sanchez. That "is an enormous obstacle" to potential reforms," he told AFP.

The Cuban president drew fire from nearly all corners abroad when in April a tough crackdown against dissidents rounded up 75 of his political opponents and sentenced them to up to 28 years in prison. Then, three people who tried to hijack a commuter ferry to get to the United States faced swift summary trials and execution. ***