A young Cuban- American lobbyist and a first-term Florida congresswoman were credited with defeating efforts to ease U.S. sanctions against Havana.

BY PABLO BACHELET

WASHINGTON - As efforts to weaken U.S. sanctions on Cuba seemed to gain strength on Capitol Hill last year, a young Cuban-American lobbyist and a first-term congresswoman from Florida swung into action to quash the initiatives.

Mauricio Claver-Carone, a director of the U.S.-Cuba Democracy Political Action Committee, contacted more than 120 lawmakers, donated money to their campaigns and urged them to reject any easing of the trade and travel sanctions.

With first-term Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Pembroke Pines Democrat, urging her brethren to vote against the initiatives, Congress rejected five of the initiatives two weeks ago.

Together, Claver-Carone and Wasserman Schultz represent a reorganization of the Cuban-American lobby in Washington that seems to be recovering the clout it had when the late Jorge Mas Canosa ran the Cuban American National Foundation.

''The [pro] embargo side worked the issue very hard, and there's no doubt that the campaign contributions played a part in it,'' said Philip Peters, a critic of the sanctions and member of the Lexington Institute think tank in Arlington, Va.

The lobbying seems to have worked. Reversing a five-year trend in which supporters of easing U.S. sanctions against Cuba were gaining strength in Congress, the House in late June rejected four initiatives relaxing restrictions, including one amendment lifting a ban on sending soap and toothpaste in gift parcels to the island and another letting Cuban Americans travel more to Cuba. The Senate rejected a measure allowing more humanitarian visits to Cuba.

''Our community decided to get involved in those races from the get-go, form relations with candidates from both parties and explain to them the Cuban tragedy,'' said Claver-Carone, 29, a former U.S. Treasury Department lawyer.

CANF LOST MUSCLE

CANF, once considered one of the most effective lobbies in Washington, began losing some of its muscle after Mas Canosa died in 1997. Some of its hard-line members split and created the Cuban Liberty Council, while CANF Executive Director Joe Garcia resigned to support a Democratic Party campaign during President Bush's reelection effort in 2004.

Claver-Carone's U.S.-Cuba Democracy Political Action Committee -- a PAC is a special interest group registered to contribute to election campaigns -- was created in August of 2003. Wasserman Schultz helped found the Cuba Democracy Caucus, a bipartisan group of pro-embargo legislators, in April.

CANF is officially neutral on the Cuba Democracy PAC, but some of its members support it. ''The idea was to find a point where everybody could rally,'' said Dennis Hays, a former CANF vice president and U.S. diplomat. ``If you've been to South Florida at all, you know there's a tendency to splinter off into different groups.''

The Cuba Democracy PAC has raised about $750,000 from 1,500 contributors since its birth. Fundraising is done out of Miami while Claver-Carone, whose father is Spanish and whose mother is Cuban American, focuses on the Washington lobbying.

According to PAC filings with the Federal Election Commission, its contributors range from retirees who chipped in with with $200 to high-profile Cuban Americans like Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who gave $4,000 before he joined the Bush administration.

Claver-Carone says he gets paid nothing for his PAC efforts. His full-time job is running a research and advocacy organization, the Cuba Democracy Advocates, created early last year by Miami car dealer Gus Machado and Leopoldo Fernandez Pujals, a Cuban exile who built a pizza empire in Spain.

Machado is the PAC's treasurer, but Claver-Carone says the PAC is not linked to the Advocates group.

The PAC's eight-person executive committee and 17-person board of directors include Remedios Diaz and Ricardo Mayo from the Cuban Liberty Council, Alicia Ortiz and Anolan Ponce from Mothers Against Repression and business leaders Raul Masvidal, Juan Delgado and Mario Ferro, according to Claver-Carone.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group, says the Cuba Democracy PAC has given $214,000 to 113 House candidates and $54,000 to 12 Senate candidates. About 70 percent of the money went to Republicans.

But the Latin America Working Group, an anti-sanctions advocacy organization, says 33 House members that until last year were considered solid supporters of easing the restrictions, voted against many similar initiatives this year after receiving money from the Cuba Democracy PAC. The donations ranged from $1,000 to $5,000.

AGAINST INITIATIVES

Among those voting against the initiatives was Rep. Donald Manzullo R-Ill., a member of the Cuba Working Group, a congressional caucus that favors more trade with the island. The PAC donated $1,000 to his campaign.

For Wasserman Schultz, a 12-year veteran of the Florida Legislature, Cuba was an early test of her Washington political skills. As a whip for the Cuba Democracy Caucus, she lobbied all 42 fellow freshmen and some senior members from both parties to vote against the amendments. Her spokesman, Jonathan Beeton, claimed that she persuaded ''several'' to vote with her.

Claver-Carone described Wasserman Schultz' role as ''particularly impacting,'' in the same way Miami Republican Mario Diaz-Balart was able to bring in votes from the 2002 freshman class. He added that as a Jewish American, Wasserman Schultz also shares a bond with the Cuban diaspora.

Claver-Carone says the Cuba Democracy PAC's work will continue its work even after Cuban leader Fidel Castro dies, helping the island with trade and assistance issues much like the Jewish community extends a hand to Israel.

''That's the goal of the PAC,'' he said.