U.S. executives meet Cuban officials in Mexico
 
                  By ANITA SNOW Associated Press Writer

                  CANCUN, Mexico (AP) -- A top Cuban leader and a group of U.S.
                  corporate executives criticized a U.S. decision to deny the businessmen
                  permission to visit Cuba.

                  Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon told the executives
                  that the U.S. Treasury Department's decision not to grant them permission
                  contradicted President Clinton's decision in March to ease requirements for
                  traveling to Cuba.

                  "At a certain moment, the bureaucrats changed, even reversed his decision,"
                  Alarcon said in a meeting with the American executives gathered in this
                  Mexican resort.

                  The executives also complained about the decision, blaming it on attitudes
                  left over from the Cold War.

                  "It's amazing," said Tom Boylan, a U.S. citizen and the chairman of the Sun
                  International Holding Ltd., a Cayman Island corporation. "The whole
                  relationship between the United States and Cuba is antiquated."

                  Alamar Associates, a Washington-based business consultancy, had planned
                  to lead the business group on a visit Friday to Cuba, just a short plane ride
                  from Cancun. But after U.S. authorization was denied, the meeting was
                  hastily reorganized to be held entirely in Cancun for two days beginning
                  Thursday.

                  About half of the original 60 people who had signed up for the conference
                  canceled, said Alamar's president, Kirby Jones.

                  "Some companies pulled out because it was crucial for them to go to Cuba,
                  to look at the facilities," Jones said.

                  Boylan's company has a contract to develop the seaport at the new
                  free-trade zone in Mariel, just outside Havana, the Cuban capital, and he
                  wanted to make business contacts.

                  The U.S. trade embargo, which has been in place for more than 35 years,
                  bars Americans from spending money in Cuba, but doesn't prohibit visits
                  outright. Alamar said the Cuban government had offered to pay all the
                  executives' costs in Cuba, as it did during a one-day meeting organized by
                  Alamar in March. The Treasury Department did not block that trip.

                  A leading Cuban exile group, the Miami-based Cuban American National
                  Foundation, denounced the plans for this week's meeting, accusing Alamar
                  of exploiting loopholes in the U.S. embargo.

                  The Treasury Department then rejected Alamar's request for a license to
                  bring the business group to Cuba, saying it would be "inconsistent with
                  current U.S. policy aimed at bringing about a peaceful transition to
                  democracy," a Treasury official said on condition of anonymity.

                  Jones said U.S. officials rejected the license because his company was
                  unwilling to denounce Cuba to the media.

                  Carlos Fernandez de Cossio of Cuba's Foreign Relations Ministry, one of
                  those at the meeting, criticized U.S. officials for a decision he said was
                  designed to "satisfy a very narrow group, a very extremist group from
                  Florida."

                  "It is surprising how many people showed up despite the U.S. decision," he
                  said. "It's stimulating."

                  Copyright 1998   The Associated Press.