In response to a U.S. display in Havana calling attention to the plight of Cuban dissidents, Cuba erected a large billboard with, among other things, images of prisoner abuse in Iraq.

BY NANCY SAN MARTIN

Angered by a holiday display at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana that includes a sly reference to human rights, Cuba fired back Friday with its own dig -- huge billboards across the street showing U.S. abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

The giant exhibit across from the U.S. Interests Section also includes swastikas, some stamped ''Made in the U.S.A.,'' and the Spanish words for ''Fascists'' and ''Infamy'' punctuating the photos from Abu Ghraib.

The billboards were erected overnight along the Malecón, Havana's busy seaside avenue, and workers spent Friday installing large spotlights to compete with the holiday display on the Interests Section's grounds -- a lighted Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman and the number 75 -- a reference to the 75 dissidents jailed last year during an islandwide crackdown.

Cuba has demanded the Interests Section pull down its display, but the building has diplomatic immunity. In the absence of full U.S.-Cuban diplomatic relations, the Interests Sections in Havana and Washington act as virtual embassies.

''Of course we support the Christmas display,'' Secretary of State Colin Powell told The Associated Press. 'It's . . . celebrating an important moment in our faith and the faith of the Cuban people, and to put `75' on the side of the building was showing solidarity with people who are being held . . . and whose rights are being denied by the Cuban Government.''

''And the Cuban government's response is to put forward and show the world a swastika?'' Powell said. 'I don't think that is very wise on their part, and we will continue to stick by our troops down there, our diplomats down there and our Christmas display, with the `75.' ''

An official at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana earlier in the day called the dueling exhibits an ``open show of the Cuban government's intolerance.''

''There couldn't be a better contrast,'' the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said in a telephone interview. ``You've got the U.S. wishing Cubans happy holidays and Frosty the Snowman waving at passersby and an effort to prompt discussion about human rights on one side. And, on the other side, you have these screaming Cuban government billboards.''

''The torture at Abu Ghraib, which President Bush has called abominable, has been investigated, reported and discussed fully and openly in the United States, and those who are responsible are being prosecuted,'' the official added.

``On the other hand, the Cuban government doesn't allow a single word of dissent in its media, it jails those who dare espouse different ideas and hasn't allowed . . . anyone to visit Cuba's political prisoners since the late 1980s.''

''If Cubans themselves could speak freely . . . then we wouldn't have to do any of this . . . to try to speak for them and get their message out,'' the American official said.

U.S. `DESPERATE'

Officials at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington did not respond to Herald requests for comment. But earlier this week, Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcón called the American decorations ''rubbish'' and said James Cason, the chief U.S. diplomat in Havana, seemed ``desperate to create problems.''

The competing exhibits prompted many tourists to snap pictures, although some Cuban passersby seemed confused by the intended message.

''This is well-placed, so the whole world understands that what's most important is humanity,'' Evelio Pérez, told the AP after walking past the Cuban billboards with his family.

JUST THE BEGINNING?

Behind closed doors, many Cubans chatted about the U.S.-Cuban tensions, escalated since Bush began tightening and expanding U.S. sanctions on Cuba this summer. They also wondered what might come next if Cason sticks to his vow to keep the decorations up until after the holidays.

Some fretted over speculation that the Cuban government would close operations at the American mission, located in the same building where the U.S. embassy once operated.

''That building provides a little ray of hope for the many people who want to get out of here,'' one Havana resident said in a telephone interview. ``No one says anything in public but everybody is keeping a close eye on what is happening and they are nervous.''

Manuel Vázquez Portal, one of the 75 dissidents arrested last year and sentenced to up to 28 years in prison after summary trials, said the Cuban government's reaction to the U.S. display had gone ``from the sublime to the ridiculous.''

''I see [the U.S. display] as a gesture of support for 75 innocent people,'' said Vázquez Portal, one of only 14 dissidents released so far. He spoke to the Herald in a telephone interview.

''It's too bad that Cuban prisoners have to be defended by a foreign government,'' he said.