A different voice weighs in on the Cuban American National Foundation rift: Irma Mas Canosa, widow of CANF Chairman Jorge Mas Canosa, mother of current chair Jorge Mas Santos. She warns that ``personal attacks'' will not help rid the ``homeland'' of Fidel Castro.

 Irma wrote a one-page, eight-paragraph ``Dear Fellow Countrymen'' letter in Spanish supporting the organization her husband founded in 1981. He headed CANF until '97, when he died at 58 of lung cancer; Jorge Jr. assumed the post in '99. Last week, Ninoska Pérez Castellón quit CANF, denouncing its leaders as liars and hypocrites who can't take criticism and have abandoned the founder's ideals.

 Irma, 62, rarely speaks out on exile politics, although son Jorge, 38, once described her as ``the spinal column of our family.'' She acknowledges she has no official
 position with CANF, but calls the infighting ``extremely painful.''

 ``Conspiracies, abstentionism and coup d'etat are valid rights when . . . directed against a dictatorship, but never can be part of a democracy,'' she writes. ``To those who have decided to leave the Foundation, I wish them the best and remind them that it is not with personal attacks or trying to discredit the institution [through which] we are going to achieve our common end, or have we forgotten that our only enemy is Fidel Castro and only against him should we direct all of our efforts?''

 Irma likens CANF to a ``tree which suffered a strong tremor'' with her husband's death. ``Some branches and leaves have fallen, but it's already full with new sprouts.'' She closes by noting: ``Men will pass and so will storms.''

 Says Joe Garcia, CANF's exec director: ``What has her upset is that everyone is claiming her husband's legacy. She knew him best.'' He says her letter will go out soon -- U.S. mail -- to the Foundation's 50,000 members.