BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI

 Had the Latin Grammys been held in Miami this month, locals might have been treated to an unusual spectacle: two, perhaps three, rival exile demonstrations on the
 night of the awards show.

 The plans for separate protests by three Cuban exile factions underscore sharp disagreements among prominent Cuban Americans about how best to push the
 anti-Castro cause after Elián, as well as a growing willingness to air their differences publicly.

 The debate seems especially notable in that those now calling for a reassessment of exiles' tradition of vociferous street protests include leaders of groups regarded as hard-liners, such as the Cuban American National Foundation, Brothers to the Rescue and the Democracia Movement.

 All three organizations -- although not necessarily working in concert -- pointedly declined to participate in plans by several dozen other exile groups for a street
 demonstration across from AmericanAirlines Arena, where the Sept. 11 awards show was to be held.

 DIFFERENT FOCUS

 Instead, leaders of those groups were hoping to stage alternative demonstrations that they say would not have risked disrupting the event or sought to ``repudiate'' visiting Cuban musicians, but instead would have used the occasion to focus media attention on the suppression of artistic freedom under Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

 ``It was an opportunity to expose the cultural apartheid that Fidel Castro maintains in the arts, repressing those artists who are not followers, while rewarding those who are,'' said Democracia founder Ramón Saúl Sánchez, who as far back as April issued a statement calling on exiles to ``win hearts'' for their cause by conducting a silent vigil on Latin Grammys night.

 ``We said from the beginning that we should not focus our protest against the Grammys or those artists. We fight for everyone's rights, even if we don't like what they sing or who they sing it to,'' he said in an interview last week.

 Sánchez, a onetime supporter of armed struggle against Castro, insists his stance on the Latin Grammys is no different from views he has espoused since embracing a
 nonviolent philosophy years ago.

 EARLIER ACTIONS

 But such recent statements from Sánchez have surprised Miamians who recall his role in organizing protests that angered many residents by blocking highways and
 causeways, as well as leading demonstrations demanding that rafter child Elián González be permitted to remain in the United States.

 In fact, since the Latin Grammys' producers pulled out, citing security concerns, Sánchez, CANF Chairman Jorge Mas Santos and Brothers founder José Basulto -- once careful not to criticize other exile groups directly -- have been unsparing in their pans of the planned Latin Grammys demonstration.

 While careful to say the plans did not justify the decision by Latin Grammys head Michael Greene to pull out, each argues that the demonstration's strategy of targeting Cuban artists succeeded only in undercutting the anti-Castro cause by portraying exiles as fanatics.

 SENDS NO MESSAGE

 ``They were looking for that kind of event that can become irrational and can do more harm than good,'' Basulto said of the demonstration's organizers. ``That kind of thing sends no message. All it demonstrates is a level of little thinking.

 ``We can't adopt an intransigent posture. We have to look for alternative means or we are going to lose the few allies we have.''

 It is, at bottom, a debate more about style and tactics than about goals. Few members of these groups challenge fundamental tenets of the anti-Castro cause like the
 U.S. trade embargo of Cuba. Nor do they want an end to all demonstrations -- just savvier, nonconfrontational ones that they say would deliver the exile message more effectively.

 While none will acknowledge the Elián debacle last year played a role in their reevaluation, some observers say there can be little doubt of it. Many believe the fracas over the boy led to a decrease in support across the country for the exile cause and a weakening of support for the embargo. Some observers say exile leaders have increasingly come to accept that what plays on Eighth Street doesn't necessarily play on Main Street.

 `A RETHINKING'

 ``We're in a very interesting moment in exile Cuban politics,'' said Darío Moreno, professor of politics at Florida International University. ``There has been a rethinking, and it began because of Elián, which was such a public relations disaster for the exiles.

 ``You're seeing a debate between those who want to keep the purity of the old exile politics, the intransigent line if you will, and those taking a more PR-savvy line that Miami must seem to be the reasonable one in this debate.''

 It's still far from clear which faction's view will prevail, Moreno said. So-called moderate exile groups have long tried to reach beyond Little Havana with modest success. But the crack in the once-solid wall of hard-line exile politics may encourage a more representative range of exile opinions to be heard from, he said.

 Like CANF, Basulto and Sánchez, Moreno contends the hard-line groups represent only a small percentage of the exile community.

 POLITICAL SPACE

 ``What has happened is this has begun emboldening people to speak out. It has created considerable political space in the exile community,'' Moreno said.

 Even so, the three groups are finding their message to be a hard sell.

 Their position has provoked a rift with members of the exile ``old guard,'' scores of groups such as the Bay of Pigs veterans' brigade and the municipal associations that tried to organize a placard-waving, ``We don't want them here'' protest outside the Latin Grammys -- and who got the blame when the show's producers pulled the plug.

 Demonstration organizers insist that chasing away the event was never their goal. To the contrary, they say, they had hoped to show that exiles could hold a ``dignified'' protest without the squalls that have marred some earlier demonstrations -- egg-throwing outside a 1999 Miami Arena concert by Cuban band Los Van Van, for instance, or the Dumpster fires set after the federal raid on the Little Havana home of Elián's relatives.

 ANTI-MUSICIAN

 Organizers said the planned protest was not designed to oppose the hosting of the Latin Grammys in Miami or to block the attendance of several invited Cuban
 performers. But they say the Cuban musicians were very much the focus of the protest.

 ``No one had any desire for a confrontation,'' said Juan Pérez Franco, president of the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association. ``What we wanted to do, as was our right, was to protest peacefully against these musicians, who are no less than ambassadors for Castro's tyranny.''

 The message, he said, would have been perfectly clear: ``By doing this protest in front of the Grammys, the entire world would have seen that Cuban exiles are protesting tyranny in Cuba, and that we are still relevant after 42 years of struggle.''

 Despite the disagreement over the protest, Pérez Franco said it doesn't extend to other issues, noting that Basulto himself is a Bay of Pigs veteran -- and that the Bay of Pigs group is strongly supporting his quest to persuade U.S. authorities to indict Castro over the 1996 shoot-down of two Brothers planes by Cuban fighters.

 JUDGMENT CALL

 ``It's simply a matter of a difference of judgment, and I say this with the greatest respect,'' Pérez Franco said.

 Since the Latin Grammys' decision to pull out of Miami, leaders of groups supporting the protest have said the withdrawal only shows they were right -- that trying to
 please Middle America by soft-pedaling their message gains them nothing.

 The debate reflects in part a generational split. Many of the protest organizers left Cuba as adults, many with experience in Cuba's rough-and-tumble pre-Castro politics. By contrast, Sánchez, who is 46, and Mas Santos, son of CANF founder Jorge Mas Canosa, are members of a younger, U.S.-bred generation of exiles who have sought to tailor their message to U.S. audiences.

 Mas Santos surprised many inside and outside CANF when he openly began lobbying for the Latin Grammys to be held in Miami as a way to demonstrate the
 community's capacity for tolerance.

 SEEN AS BETRAYAL

 Some critics saw Mas Santos' move as a betrayal of the legacy of his father, who was widely credited with broadening the reach of the exile cause by establishing CANF as a sophisticated and powerful lobbying group in Washington.

 In part because of Mas Santos' support of the Latin Grammys, a group of longtime members of CANF's board of directors staged a mass resignation and later signed a newspaper ad reespousing traditional hard-line exile views along with Pérez Franco and leaders of other organizations.

 The debate over the Latin Grammys reached a crescendo in early August, as demonstration organizers, aided by the American Civil Liberties Union, pushed for a site close enough to be seen and heard by guests arriving for the awards show.

 Sánchez said he pleaded with the protest organizers during an early planning meeting to shift their focus away from the visiting Cuban artists, with no success.

 ``I told them we had to show people that we are different from the regime in Cuba,'' he said. ``But they were so agitated that they wouldn't listen.''

 ALTERNATE PLANS

 Sánchez said he was attempting to put together an alternative demonstration on Watson Island with the participation of exiled Cuban musicians when the Latin Grammys' producers announced they were pulling out.

 CANF had its own plans: "On the steps of the Freedom Tower, people dressed in black would stand silent with tape over their mouths and have a black banner saying, 'Freedom for Cuba.' A very eloquent, solemn, dignified way on the night of the Grammys,'' Mas Santos said in an interview after the Grammys' withdrawal. "I don't believe in street protests. Street protests have limited value.''

 Basulto, who said he was "indifferent'' over whether the Latin Grammys stayed or went, at first supported plans for an alternative protest but eventually concluded the strongest possible statement was to ignore the whole thing.

 He nonetheless called it "a lost opportunity'' that benefited only Castro.

 "On a silver platter, we had a chance to reach millions of people around the world, but we didn't know how to take advantage of it,'' Basulto said. ``We didn't realize we were playing Fidel Castro's game.''

 Still, Mas Santos said, he remains persuaded that the strategy he followed proved itself in the end.

 "When you look at everything that has been written, the majority of the community had support for the Latin Grammys coming here. We made great strides in trying to dispel the stereotype of Miami as intolerant and disrespectful of the rights of others,'' he said. "It was the right thing to do.''

                                    © 2001