Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The top U.S. diplomat in Cuba said Thursday that Cubans eager for political change are rallying behind a grass-roots movement to force a referendum on whether free speech and other rights should be permitted.

Career diplomat Vicki Huddleston told reporters the movement is changing the political dynamic in Cuba, which has been under one-party rule for decades.

She said Cuban dissidents are attempting to take advantage of a provision in the 1976 constitution that permits a referendum if 10,000 signatures are collected on a petition calling for one.

Huddleston said more than 10,000 signatures have been obtained, despite government efforts to discourage citizens from signing up. Once the signatures are verified, the petition will be presented to the National Assembly for action.

Judging by past efforts to promote systemic reform, it seems doubtful the assembly would respond favorably to the initiative.

The petition movement is known as Project Varela and is guided by Oswaldo Paya, a longtime Cuban dissident.

The referendum would ask voters whether they think guarantees are needed to assure the rights of free speech and association and whether they support amnesty for political prisoners.

It would also call for new electoral laws and more opportunities for Cubans to run private businesses.

Regardless of the fate of Project Varela, Huddleston said, she believes a transition from the Castro era may have begun July 8 when the Cuban leader fainted during a speech.

Castro recovered quickly but, she said, the government made clear at the time that the Cuban leader's younger brother, Raul, would be the successor.

This, she added, would not satisfy the yearning for change that she believes most Cubans want.

``They want a name change and a generational change,'' Huddleston said. Fidel Castro will be 76 in August; Raul, who is second in the Cuban hierarchy, will be 71 in June.

President Castro has said all along that the Cuban revolution will outlive him. Dismissing suggestions of a transition, he has said Cuba had its transition in 1959 when he seized power from a military dictatorship and established a one-party state.

Huddleston, who is here for consultations, has an uneasy relationship with Cuban authorities. She said economic difficulties are producing discontent on the island.

``There is no future for youth,'' she said. Conditions have worsened in recent months because of Hurricane Michelle, which devastated a large section of the island in November, she said.

A shrinking economy, a decline in tourism and prospects for a poor sugar crop all suggest that the chances for a rebound over the short term are not good, she said.

Beyond that, Huddleston said, a health care system touted by some as a model for Third World countries has deteriorated because of chronic shortages of medicines.

Copyright 2001 Associated Press.