By Jim Loney
MIAMI, March 3 (Reuters) - Cuba's recent crackdown on dissidents is little more than business as usual for Fidel Castro but his foes in exile are heartened by international criticism of the event, some exile leaders said on Wednesday.
In its biggest move against internal dissent in years, Cuba's ruling Communist party this week put on trial the island's four best-known dissidents, barred foreign observers from court and rounded up scores of government opponents.
The crackdown stirred expected criticism from the United States, Castro's longtime foe, but also from Canada and Spain, two of Cuba's strongest commercial allies.
Some exiles said they saw little difference between the current crackdown and past moves to quell internal dissent, and wondered at international criticism even as they welcomed it.
"I don't see any difference in what Castro was doing before and what he is doing now," said Ninoska Perez, spokeswoman for the powerful Cuban American National Foundation, a leading Miami exile voice that has accused Castro of jailing political enemies throughout his 40-year revolution.
While the United States, which maintains an economic embargo against the Caribbean island, condemned the handling of the dissident trial as "an affront to the most elemental concept of due process," both Canada and Spain, which have engaged Havana in dialogue and invested heavily in Cuba, also expressed concern about the crackdown.
"I really don't see how much longer the world can go on with this hypocrisy," Perez said. "Canadians and Spaniards and others who are investing in Cuba have this attitude that Cubans are third-class citizens."
Canada's Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy said Cuba's decision to exclude observers and round up dissidents was "a major step backwards." Spain said a planned visit to the island by King Juan Carlos would go ahead only if there was no "atmosphere of repression" in Cuba.
"I am satisfied that the world is beginning to see the truth about what transpires in Cuba," said Ramon Saul Sanchez, head of Democracy Movement, a Miami exile group that advocates peaceful civil disobedience in Cuba. "I always had the faith that at some point the truth would surface and the world was going to realize what happens in Cuba."
Sanchez said the crackdown -- like the shootdown by Cuban military jets of two unarmed civilian aircraft carrying Miami-based exiles in February 1996 -- was further proof that Castro feared internal opposition more than international condemnation.
"Nothing is changing. He is more willing to take world criticism than to allow internal dissent to grow, because the internal dissent can eventually take away his power," he said.
Silvia Wilhelm, director of the moderate exile group Cuban Committee for Democracy, which advocates dialogue with Cuba, a modification of the U.S. embargo and market reforms on the island, said it was too early to tell if the crackdown signaled a permanent tightening of restrictions on internal dissent.
"We're extremely concerned with detaining people in homes and in prisons because they were trying to attend a trial," she said. "I think the surprise is the timing. It seems to have taken a turn for possibly a more severe crackdown. But it's too early to speculate."
Wilhelm said the criticism from Spain and Canada was not a departure from their previous stances on Cuba.
"The Spanish government and the Canadian government, even though they have economic ties to Cuba and they believe in a civilized dialogue with Cuba, have never in any way supported the policies of the Cuban government," she said. "They have simply made a stronger statement. They are increasing the volume."
21:27 03-03-99
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited