By JUAN O. TAMAYO
             Herald Staff Writer

             In a tough, new threat to dissent, Cuba's legislature Monday unveiled a law that
             classifies a broad range of activities as security crimes and slaps 30-year prison
             terms on violators.

             The measure was part of an overhaul of Cuba's penal code that would also approve
             the death sentence for major drug traffickers and increase the maximum prison term
             for several crimes from 20 to 30 years.

             ``Before we get to 2,000 drug-related deaths, it's preferable to send a few before
             firing squads, President Fidel Castro told the National Assembly of Peoples' Power,
             the island's Communist Party-run legislature.

             The assembly had not voted on the twin measures as of Monday evening, but it was
             considered certain to adopt the proposals brought to it by Castro and Attorney
             General Juan Escalona.

             The law on security crimes appeared to be a direct reply to a long stream of Clinton
             administration measures, the latest announced Jan. 5, designed to support dissidents
             and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in Cuba.

             The Clinton measures allow U.S. residents to send cash and other aid to dissidents
             and NGOs, and cleared the way for increased contacts between U.S. and Cuban
             groups.

             But the Cuban law bans the ``donation, receipt, request, distribution or facilitation of
             material, financial or other resources for the purpose of undermining state security.
             It also outlaws ``the promotion, organization, inauguration or participation in meetings
             or demonstrations with such aims.

             The measure makes it a crime for Cubans to ``collaborate in the constant economic,
             political, diplomatic, propaganda and ideological war against our homeland.

             And it outlaws the ``supply, search or gathering of information and bans ``the
             collaboration . . . with radio and television stations, newspapers, magazines and other
             mass media'' for such purposes.

             That section clearly applies to the dozens of dissidents and independent journalists
             who send reports to the U.S. government-run Radio and TV Marti, to Internet sites
             abroad and to newspapers such as El Nuevo Herald.

             Because such activities threaten the ``fundamental interests of the nation, the law
             considers them to be crimes even if they take place abroad, according to news
             reports from Havana.

             Violators could be jailed for up to 30 years, fined up to 100,000 pesos -- in a country
             where the average monthly salary is 217 pesos -- and have their homes, cars and
             other properties confiscated.

             But even if never actually used, the law is so broadly drawn that it is certain to
             frighten dissidents, independent journalists and other nongovernment players in the
             Cuban drama.

             ``There's great concern in Cuba over whether this could lead to a worsening, if that
             is possible, of the human rights situation there, said human rights activist Elizardo
             Sanchez, visiting relatives in Miami.

             Sanchez declined to comment further, saying he first wanted to read the law's full
             text but acknowledging that he was concerned the Cuban government might apply
             the new law to anything he said.

             ``Cuban law is already supremely restrictive, said Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive
             chief of the Americas section of Human Rights Watch. ``This new law may finally
             suffocate the last possibility for alternative thinking.

             Castro set the stage for the legislature's debate on the penal code reforms with a
             televised speech charging that Washington is promoting crime in Cuba as a way to
             undermine his government.

             ``They are encouraging it, propagandizing it . . . to turn it into a tool against the
             country, he said, recounting his speech last month urging National Police officials to
             stem the island's rising crime wave.

             Police officers have since run prostitutes off Havana's seaside Malecon drive and
             sent hundreds of petty criminals and black market operators to jail, while prosecutors
             won the death penalty for Cubans who murdered two Italian tourists last year.

             The new code increases from 20 to 30 years the maximum penalty for small-scale
             drug trafficking, theft, pimping and corruption of minors and introduced the possibility
             of life sentences for repeat offenders.

             It also provides death sentences for armed robbers and drug traffickers who deal in
             large amounts or involve minors, recommends life sentences for violent robberies
             and establishes the new crimes of money laundering and people smuggling.

             By coincidence, a group of North and South American Catholic bishops gathered in
             Havana Monday repeated the church's decades-old opposition to the death penalty.
             But Castro was unmoved.

             ``I hope the day comes when we can do without the death penalty, he told the
             Assembly. ``But first we oppose the death penalty against the country, against the
             death of the country.
 

                               Copyright © 1999 The Miami Herald