BY JUAN O. TAMAYO

 Hoping to grab some of the limelight of a summit of foreign leaders in Havana next
 month, Cuba's small dissident movements are planning their biggest burst of
 public defiance since Concilio Cubano in 1996.

 Repressed and infiltrated by security agents, opposition leaders admit they are
 more likely to end up in jail than anywhere near the Iberoamerican summit Nov.
 15-16.

 Some 30 dissidents have already been detained or harassed in the last two
 weeks in an apparent government signal that it will not allow any disruptions while
 the foreign leaders and journalists are in Havana.

 But opposition leaders said they cannot let slip the chance to throw their moral
 weight against the communist government and present their demands for freedom
 to the heads of state from Latin America, Spain and Portugal.

 ``Everyone, in some way, is preparing to take advantage of the summit to
 publicize their positions, said Elizardo Sanchez, head of the Cuban Commission
 for Human Rights and Reconciliation.

 One Western journalist in Havana reported his phone has been ``ringing off the
 hook with calls from dissidents announcing press conferences or statements
 addressed to the heads of state or President Fidel Castro.

 DETAILS FUZZY

 One faction is planning the largest dissident gathering since security agents
 broke up the Concilio Cubano coalition by arresting some 200 members in 1996,
 but is keeping details fuzzy in hopes of avoiding a police crackdown.

 ``The plan is to bring together as many groups as possible, hear their positions,
 draft a short joint statement and have it ready for when the summit starts, said
 one dissident involved.

 Another group is working discreetly to meet with Spanish President Jose Maria
 Aznar, which would boost the dissidents' international standing, while other
 dissidents have been trying to organize acts of civil disobedience.

 Several other groups already have issued public statements on the summit and
 announced plans for press conferences and ``seminars around the time of the
 gathering -- one even boldly inviting Miami exiles to attend.

 A collection of some 20 small dissident groups, the Third Millennium Forum, has
 urged summit leaders to force Castro to observe the agreements on democracy
 they all signed during a previous summit in Chile.

 ``We hope the government understands that on the eve of the Third Millennium
 . . . intransigence, intolerance and despotism must, for the good of all, give way
 to reconciliation, said a Forum declaration Oct. 2.

 `CONGRESS' PLANNED

 The National Coordinator of Cuban Prisoners and Former Political Prisoners has
 invited foreign diplomats and journalists to its upcoming ``Congress, but said it
 will reveal the exact date only at the last minute to avoid possible police attempts
 to block the gathering.

 The Round Table of the Moderate Opposition, made up of five small dissident
 groups, issued a 54-page document last month urging Castro to begin ``a gradual
 transition, without exclusions, toward tolerance and democracy.

 And a tiny group of private farmers has scheduled a grandly named ``National
 Encounter of Independent Farmers and Cooperative Members, in the central
 province of Matanzas for Nov. 12-14, just two days before the summit.

 The organizing committee invited exile figures Willie Chirino, Gloria Estefan,
 Carlos Alberto Montaner and Agustin Tamargo to attend, even though the Cuban
 government is highly unlikely to allow them to enter the island.

 Cuba's government has steadfastly denied the existence of ``dissidents on the
 island, calling them all ``counterrevolutionaries paid by the U.S. government to stir
 up trouble and undermine the Iberoamerican summit.

 U.S. State Department officials said Washington has certainly ``encouraged
 those foreign leaders going to Havana to meet with the dissidents and hear their
 complaints.

 MIAMIANS CAMPAIGN

 In Miami, Cuban exiles launched a campaign Thursday to discourage participation
 in the summit. Twenty-seven exile organizations signed a letter sent to the
 countries asking for their support and solidarity in not recognizing the Castro
 government.

 ``It is inconceivable that as we approach the 21st Century, democratically elected
 heads of state agree to meet in a country ruled by a dictator that has not held free
 elections in 41 years,'' the groups said at a news conference.

 The presidents of Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua are boycotting the
 summit because of Cuba's lack of democracy, while the leaders of Chile and
 Argentina are staying away because of Spain's effort to bring to trial former
 Chilean ruler Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

 Cuban dissidents acknowledge their weaknesses -- their lack of protection from
 government repression, their small numbers, the state security agents infiltrated
 in their midst and their internal feuds.

 ``We cannot allow internal rivalries or conflicts, nor a certain tendency to
 exaggerate the dimensions of the plans for a burst of defiance in advance of the
 summit, one dissident journalist reported from Havana recently.

 But they are hoping that their planned activities will force Castro to either take a
 cautious approach while the foreign leaders are in town, and allow a measure of
 public dissent, or risk the publicity of a crackdown.

 Some 800 foreign journalists have signed up to cover the summit.

 RESPONSE EXPECTED

 The dissidents' bet: Castro will try to break up the activities as quietly as
 possible, putting some dissidents under house arrest, denying transportation to
 others and detaining those who insist on carrying on.

 Elizardo Sanchez said he fears even worse -- a harsh crackdown that will reverse
 five years of ``low-intensity repression that had allowed Castro's opponents some
 space for complaints.

 ``It looks like they are getting ready to raise the wall, lift the drawbridge and
 reinforce the image of a besieged citadel, Sanchez, considered a moderate, said
 in a phone interview from Havana.

 Among the signs he perceives: increased police presence on the streets; fewer
 permits for dissidents to travel abroad; recent spats with Canada, Portugal and
 the European Union; and Castro's recent decision to pump an extra $20 million
 into the government-controlled mass media.

 ``A government preparing to open itself doesn't do this, Sanchez said. ``I hope I
 am wrong, but I think we should be preparing more for a hardening than a
 moderation of the government's domestic policy.

 Herald staff writer Ana Acle contributed to this report.

                     Copyright 1999 Miami Herald