BY CAROL ROSENBERG

 Lawyer Herminio San Román, who directed Radio and TV Martí's move to Miami, has submitted his resignation from the U.S. government operation
 that beams broadcasts to Cuba -- and several celebrated Miami broadcasters are being considered for the post.

 Included on the short-list to become director of the U.S. Office of Cuban Broadcasting: veteran Spanish radio commentator Salvador Lew, 72 and Ninoska Pérez
 Castellón, 51, a spokeswoman for the Cuban American National Foundation and host of the popular Spanish call-in radio show -- Ninoska a la Una, Ninoska at One.

 Also in consideration, according to political sources in Washington and Miami who are knowledgeable about the transition: former Radio Martí director Antonio "Tony'' Navarro, 78, of Key Biscayne, and documentary film maker Eduardo Alberto Palmer, 70.

 "If I were to bet my money, I would bet on Salvador,'' radio announcer Agustín Acosta said Monday from WQBA, AM-1140, citing Lew's "many years of experience'' and "excellent reputation'' throughout the Spanish-language broadcast community.

 Acosta, whose name also came up as a possible successor to San Román, denied that he was in contention.

 President Clinton chose 43-year-old San Román, a Cuban-American Democrat, to take the job in March 1997. A lawyer with Miami's Adorno & Zeder, he earned $133,000 year at the time of his resignation, had a staff of 163, a $22 million budget and "top secret'' FBI clearance.

 "It has been a rewarding experience,'' San Román wrote President Bush in his resignation, which he released Monday to become effective July 27.

 The post, he said, let him "honorably serve the U.S. and at the same time serve millions of Cubans whose basic human rights are violated every day, by promoting
 democracy, accurate and balanced information and clear dissemination of U.S. foreign policy toward Cuba.''

 San Román's departure had been widely expected because he's a life-long Democrat and the job is considered in some quarters to be a political plum for a party loyalist. Unlike an ambassadorship, it requires no congressional confirmation.

 He declined to say Monday whether he had already clashed with the Bush administration.

 During his four-plus years on the job, he relocated to Miami from Washington the division that produces both video and audio broadcasts aimed at Cuba.

 For the past two years he also oversaw live broadcasts, a bid to make programming more dynamic despite Cuban jamming.

 San Román's stewardship has had some controversy.

 In March 1999, the State Department's inspector general told Congress that a panel of independent journalists had found "problems with balance, fairness, objectivity and adequate sourcing that impacted credibility . . . particularly the live broadcasts.''

 San Román said that he would take the summer to decide what to do next, although he said he expected to return to law. "I hope that the administration names someone quick,'' he said, explaining it could take two months for the FBI to do his successor's background checks.

 Lew, 72, is an Independent. Born in Las Villas province in Cuba, he was educated as a lawyer and twice exiled -- from 1957 to 1959 after he was jailed for distributing literature against the Fulgencio Batista regime, then again in 1961 after his disillusionment with Fidel Castro.

 He has been aligned with previous Republican administrations, notably that of the president's father, George Bush, who appointed Lew to the Radio Martí governing board in 1992. President Clinton renewed his appointment. In 1984, Lew visited Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office to deliver 100,000 letters of support of U.S. Central American policy.

 Lew may be best known as the former general manager and founder of WRHC-Cadena Azul, which he helped open in 1973. More recently he has been at home,
 convalescing from multiple heart bypass surgery. He could not be reached for comment.

 Pérez Castellón, meanwhile, is a registered Republican who is closely identified with the influential Cuban lobby. The wife of once-jailed Cuban dissident Roberto Martín Pérez,  she has been known to fake a Spanish accent and ring up Cuban government offices or island hotels to illustrate what she calls Cuba's policies of tourism apartheid.

 Foundation officials describe her as among the most popular exile broadcasters to the island and rebroadcast her program to the island over their La Voz radio wing. During the ill-fated exile campaign to keep Elián González in the United States, Pérez Castellón occasionally acted as a national spokeswoman for the Cuban cause. Her national profile has diminished since, with a reorganization of the foundation hierarchy under heir Jorge Mas Santos that included the hiring of a professional executive director, Joe Garcia, and former U.S. Ambassador Dennis Hays as a vice president in the Washington office.

 She was broadcasting Monday, but did not return a call to her foundation offices.

 Navarro, who is a Democrat and a chemist by training, ran Radio Martí and introduced TV Martí during the first Bush administration.

 A former director of Radio Europe and Radio Liberty, he is also the author of the 1981 book, Tocayo, about disenchantment with the Castro Revolution.

 "I'm here if they need me,'' he said Monday evening. "I will think about it.''

 Now retired and serving on several boards, Navarro said he had been contacted by President Bush's transition team about the job.

 His aim, he said, would be to increase audience share, which plunged dramatically in the 1990s. He may be a long shot.

 The transition team had said it would reappoint people to jobs they held during the earlier Bush and Reagan administrations.

 Palmer, a Republican, could not be reached for comment Monday.

                                    © 2001