By Serge F. Kovaleski
                  Washington Post Foreign Service
                  Sunday, February 28, 1999; Page A21

                  HAVANA—A billboard on the side of a building in this dilapidated capital
                  heralded the arrival earlier this month of Belize's prime minister, Said
                  Musa, whose portrait was sketched on the poster next to warm words of
                  welcome in Spanish and English.

                  In preceding weeks, the same billboard had extended similar greetings to
                  the leaders of St. Lucia, Colombia and Suriname. Meanwhile, the island
                  has been all but overrun by foreign ministers from countries such as Peru,
                  Belgium and Canada.

                  In the year since Pope John Paul II's historic visit to Cuba, the government
                  of President Fidel Castro has launched what it terms "the offensive," a
                  diplomatic full-court press aimed at forging political and economic ties with
                  nations around the world as a way to combat the long-standing U.S. trade
                  embargo against this Communist country.

                  Closer ties could help ease a grinding economic crisis that is largely the
                  result of U.S. sanctions and the disappearance of large subsidies that
                  followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

                  But the initiative also carries symbolic importance for Castro, who is trying
                  to present Cuba as a more open state and one that has been able to
                  circumvent U.S. efforts to isolate this island of 11 million people.

                  Capitalizing on the pontiff's call for improved relations between Cuba and
                  the rest of the world, Castro has invited a multitude of foreign dignitaries to
                  visit the Western Hemisphere's last bastion of communism. They have
                  responded in kind, forging agreements on issues from trade to scientific
                  research and cultural exchanges that could pave the way for more
                  substantive cooperation.

                  According to the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations, 36 heads of state
                  and 92 ministers came last year to Cuba, which now maintains diplomatic
                  relations with 167 countries, the latest being New Zealand, which signed
                  on this month.

                  Meanwhile, Castro has dispatched Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina on
                  trips from Russia to Asia. Earlier this month, Carlos Lage, vice president of
                  the Cuban Council of Ministers, flew to Spain, where it was announced
                  that King Juan Carlos I would visit Cuba this spring.

                  Castro also has done his share of traveling. Last year, he visited 15
                  countries, including Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada and the Dominican
                  Republic, to build opposition to the embargo and promote unity in the
                  Caribbean, where Cuba is emerging as a dominant economic force mainly
                  because of its thriving tourism industry. The regional Caribbean Export
                  Development Agency is set to open a Havana office within two months.

                  The country also has sent hundreds of physicians and other health
                  professionals to areas of the Caribbean and Central America that were
                  ravaged by Hurricane Mitch last year, and more recently to Armenia,
                  Colombia, which was badly damaged by an earthquake in January.
                  Colombian President Andres Pastrana has sought Castro's help in trying to
                  negotiate a peace settlement with Colombia's leftist rebel groups.

                  "Cuba has had some great diplomatic victories over the last year,"
                  acknowledged a high-ranking U.S. State Department official.

                  Spurred by the Soviet collapse, Cuba had begun to expand its links to the
                  outside world even before the pope's visit. But the pontiff's words -- "May
                  Cuba, with all its magnificent potential, open itself up to the world, and may
                  the world open itself up to Cuba," have clearly helped speed that process.

                  In building ties with Cuba, many countries have been openly showing their
                  contempt for the embargo and efforts by Washington to pressure them into
                  isolating the island. But commercial considerations also play an important
                  role in their courtship of Castro's government.

                  A visit by a British trade official last November, for example, paved the
                  way for British Airways service between London and Havana, which it
                  expects to inaugurate this April. In December, South Africa's deputy health
                  minister came to Cuba to explore the prospects for pharmaceutical sales.
                  And several commercial accords were signed earlier this month after a visit
                  here by Peruvian government and business leaders.

                  But the mystique of Cuba and that of its 73-year-old leader also have
                  attracted emissaries who now are more willing to defy an embargo that the
                  pope condemned during his visit here. "What this all shows is that we are
                  not the isolated ones," said a top-ranking official in Cuba's Central
                  Committee. "We are part of the world . . . and many people around the
                  world are fascinated with the social project we have been working on for a
                  long time."

                  John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council,
                  said, "All of this international activity is of tremendous public relations value
                  because it shows that an increasing number of countries are accepting what
                  Cuba is and not what it should be or will be."

                  He added, however, that "once it gets past the diplomatic-relations stage,
                  the real challenge of accountability comes. More nations may start
                  becoming vocal about the way Cuba is governed."

                  Cuba received a dose of criticism this month when Isabel Allende, a
                  Cuban deputy foreign minister, visited Norway the day after Cuban
                  lawmakers approved tough laws to neutralize U.S.-linked opposition to the
                  Castro government.

                  At a news conference with Allende following private discussions about
                  political prisoners and dissidents in Cuba, Norway's deputy foreign
                  minister, Janne Haaland Matlary, said, "Cuba's new penal laws are too
                  strict in comparison to the crime." Allende later retorted, "We need strict
                  punishment for those who collaborate with the United States. . . . This is a
                  matter of our independence."

                  The laws, which included measures designed to stem an alarming rise in
                  crime, were passed following President Clinton's decision last month to
                  ease the embargo, a move that Castro views as a ploy to undermine his
                  government.

                  While acknowledging their discomfort with Castro's approach to human
                  rights, representatives of governments that are seeking better relations with
                  Cuba insist that their approach is more likely to produce democratic
                  change than the U.S. policy of isolating the country.

                  "We think constructive engagement with more countries will help move
                  Cuba toward greater reforms on such issues as human rights, good
                  governance and a more open economy," said Christian Girouard, a
                  spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
                  in Canada, which is the biggest investor in Cuba.

                  Aware that it cannot go it alone anymore, Cuba has been focusing on
                  integrating itself into the Caribbean market as a means of eventually
                  obtaining favorable trade agreements with Latin America and ultimately
                  Europe. Castro already has signed a number of trade and tourism pacts
                  with Cuba's regional neighbors.

                  Cuba, which has been visited by almost every Caribbean head of state, has
                  observer status in the Caribbean trading bloc known as CARICOM and is
                  expected to be accepted into the 15-country group soon.

                  "It appears the resources Cuba can provide, such as human capital,
                  medicine, education and natural disaster response, has led CARICOM to
                  forge closer ties with it," said Randolph Hickson, marketing officer for the
                  Caribbean Export Development Agency. "There is potential in Cuba."
 

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