PAUL BRINKLEY-ROGERS

 Salvador Lew has been a warrior in the war of words between Havana and Miami for 40 years, his assaults by radio on Fidel Castro are as familiar in his native Cuba as they are to the one million Cuban exiles living in the United States.

 A call from the White House last week told the 72-year-old Lew that he had been selected to take his struggle with Castro -- his former classmate at the University of Havana -- to a new level. In August, Lew will become head of the federal government's Office of Cuba Broadcasting, the agency that operates the turmoil-plagued Radio and TV Martí. He replaces Herminio San Román, of Coral Gables, whom President Clinton appointed director in 1997. He oversaw a staff of 163 and a budget of $22 million.

 It will be the new director's job to flood Cuba with revitalized and much more relevant programming than the kind of broadcasting done during the Clinton administration, Lew said. Listener surveys done by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana show that Radio Martí's share of the Cuban audience dropped from 70 percent six years ago to only 6 or 7 percent today.

 ``The content has not been interesting to Cubans,'' Lew said. ``The Clinton administration did everything possible to please Castro in order to reestablish relations. But the objective of Clinton was not the objective of Castro because if the embargo was lifted, he would have no more excuses to stay in power.''

 The new content, Lew said, will focus on ways to grab the attention of groups in Cuban society who could bring about change -- the military, farmers, workers, students, churchgoers and the large Afro-Cuban community. Radio Martí's signal strength will probably be boosted to overcome Cuban jamming but television programming remains doubtful, even though Lew says President Bush would like to see it resumed and technicians tell him it may be possible.

 Part of Radio Martí's message will be that even under former dictator Fulgencio Batista, most of those groups were doing better economically than they are under Castro, Lew said. Black Cubans were discriminated against, but job and educational opportunities were improving -- a fact that he said is missed in present-day Cuba where blacks still do not share power even though they are the regime's largest base of support.

 Lew said taking the job will mean that he will have to end his popular program La Peña Azul, broadcast on WRHC (670 AM) from the Rancho Luna Restaurant, after 16 years on the air. He started in Miami-area radio on WMIE in 1961 after leaving Cuba for good, earning fame for breaking the story on Aug. 7, 1962, that Soviet troops had arrived in Cuba, only weeks before the drama of the missile crisis was played out.

 Newly divorced and fully recovered from quintuple bypass surgery earlier this year, Lew lives in a small bachelor's apartment near Coral Way surrounded by a lifetime of mementos.

 There are floor-to-ceiling arrangements of oil paintings and etchings in each room. Stacks of books cover tables, and boxes of files, tapes, newspaper clippings and
 photos tell of a long career and an interest in issues important to the Cuban community.

 Lew was born in the Villa Clara town of Camajuaní. His father was a Jewish immigrant from Pinsk, Poland, near the Russian border. He first encountered Castro at the University of Havana law school where his nemesis, two years his senior, also was enrolled.

 ``We got along pretty good,'' Lew said. Both men were involved in running for student government jobs, Castro on one side, Lew on the other.

 ``He tried to convince me to come over to his own group,'' he said. ``We talked for about two hours. He was so convincing I almost changed. But Fidel belonged to a group that were almost like gangsters. He carried a gun. I thought Fidel was a violent person -- a person who would never obey the law -- and I believe in laws.''

 After leafleting against Batista, Lew fled to the United States. He returned to Havana on the first Cubana Aviación flight from New York City, five days after Castro swept into power in January 1959, to start a law practice.

 But on Jan. 28, 1961, convinced that Castro was going down the road toward communism, Lew went into exile for good, settling in the Miami area. First, however, he said he had the pleasure of firing an employee , Armando Hart, who had aligned himself with Castro and criticized Lew for representing an American law firm's interests in Havana. Hart later became Castro's minister of education.

 Lew says he expects Castro will almost certainly have something critical to say about his appointment, especially as he had spent most of his adult life trying to bring
 about an end to Castro's government.

 He remains close friends with Castro's younger sister -- Juanita Castro -- who owns a pharmacy in Miami.

 In fact, Lew says, it was he who helped Juanita Castro settle in the United States in 1964 after she fled Cuba to Mexico.

 ``Many people told me not to help her,'' he said. ``The name Castro was so hated.'' But he met her and was impressed, taking her on a tour of Latin American countries and then escorting her around the United States when she denounced her brother.

 ``She is one of those persons who have inspired me,'' he said of his friend. ``She is a fighter, a person who has risked her life. I have nothing but admiration for her.''

                                    © 2001