HAVANA (Reuters) -- A former hero of the 1959 Cuban Revolution, later
                  jailed for 22 years after turning against President Fidel Castro, is back again
                  in his homeland on a mission to preach peaceful political change.

                  "We are proposing that Fidel Castro himself start the process of change. We
                  believe that would be marvelous for the closure of his page in history," said
                  Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo, who now heads a moderate U.S.-based Cuban
                  exile group.

                  Gutierrez, on his fourth visit since Havana first gave him permission to return
                  in 1995, said he was seeking to promote dialogue with the ruling Communist
                  Party, a space for opposition on the island, and freedom of political
                  prisoners.

                  "Although we realise that the government's agenda at the moment is to say
                  'no' to everything, we hope they realise at some point that it is necessary to
                  open a space for an independent and non-destabilising opposition," he
                  added in an interview late on Thursday with Reuters at his Havana hotel.

                  "That option would allow Cuba to reinsert itself in the Western world, as
                  well as allowing the Cuban people to freely elect their destiny and rulers."

                  Gutierrez has requested meetings with his old comrade-in- arms then bitter
                  enemy, Castro, and Cuba's new Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. He
                  held a three-hour dialogue with Castro on his first visit in 1995.

                  His presence is being interpreted as a conciliatory sign by Havana, perhaps
                  seeking to show a more moderate face after foreign criticism this year for
                  jailing four local dissidents.

                  Since his arrival a week ago, Gutierrez has already met some lower-level
                  government officials, human rights' workers, diplomats, and independent
                  journalists working unauthorised outside state media. He also plans to talk to
                  Roman Catholic Church leaders, and some dissidents on the three-week
                  trip.

                  The 64-year-old Gutierrez' dramatic life-story is a chronicle of modern
                  Cuban history.

                  As a commander in Castro's rebel forces during the two-year war against
                  former Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, he headed a guerrilla unit in the
                  central Escambray mountains until the Jan. 1, 1959 triumph of the revolution.

                  After disillusionment with the direction of Castro's revolution, Gutierrez
                  abandoned the island in 1961, only to return a few years' later with a
                  four-man invasion unit hoping to spark a guerrilla war. He was quickly
                  captured and condemned to 30 years in prison for "counter-revolutionary"
                  crimes.

                  After serving 22 years in various Cuban jails, Spain's then leader Felipe
                  Gonzalez won his release and exile there in 1986. Eventually, he moved to
                  the U.S. state of Florida, the heartland of Cuban exile opposition to Castro,
                  where he started the moderate Cambio Cubano (Cuban Change) group.

                  Now Gutierrez wants to move back to Cuba for good, and open an office
                  for Cambio Cubano in Havana, but recognises these may be pipe-dreams in
                  the current hardline political atmosphere.

                  Gutierrez said he was "annoyed" at having to apply for visa permission to
                  return to his own country, and admitted he had "bitter" memories of Cuba,
                  especially the distortion of the original revolution to produce a "proletarian
                  dictatorship."

                  "Of course, I am saddened by those memories, because here a revolution
                  was proclaimed that would be as Cuban as the palm- trees ... a revolution of
                  freedom with daily bread, and daily bread without terror ... to use Castro's
                  own words," he said.

                  But the exile leader, whom some predict could be a powerful player in a
                  post-Castro Cuba, said he preferred not to wallow in past suffering or
                  disputes. "They are things of the past. As much as one has suffered in a
                  prison, the important thing is the effort we are making to see how we can
                  reach an understanding with this country and save everyone together."

                  The majority of Cuba's 11 million inhabitants were in favour of peaceful
                  change to Castro's one-party system, and were under increasing pressure
                  from a failed economy, he said.

                  The government's refusal to reform, and inability to pay a decent salary to its
                  workers, were increasing the risk of social anarchy and violence which must
                  be avoided, he warned.

                  Gutierrez, whose opposition to the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba has
                  brought clashes with both right-wing U.S. politicians and more hardline exile
                  groups, believes President Bill Clinton's government would like to improve
                  links with Havana.

                  "But the Cuban authorities must realise that here also there is an embargo on
                  the people's liberty and rights. They must take steps in that direction, so the
                  United States can draw closer with a policy of good neighbourliness," he
                  said.