Other Latin functions will stay
  BY CAROL ROSENBERG
  crosenberg@herald.com

  Pentagon planners have carved Cuba out of the rest of Latin America in a new defense plan that concentrates on
  homeland defense from headquarters in Colorado, The Herald has learned.

  Under the new Unified Command Plan, established in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, the Southern Command, based
  just west of Miami, will be responsible for territory south of Cuba starting in October. A Northern Command will have
  jurisdiction over U.S. military activities from Canada to Cuba, including the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay.

  COVERING THE COASTS

  ''It's messy and everyone recognizes that,'' said a senior Defense Department official in Washington. ''But they wanted
  to have a sense of covering the approaches'' to the United States from the sea.

  The transfer is not expected to take place immediately upon creation of Northcom in October. Southcom could for about
  two years continue to supervise military operations at the base called Gitmo, officials said, including the new offshore
  prison project for international terror suspects.

  ''If I were the Northcom CINC [commander in chief], the last thing I would want to be worried about right now is getting
  entangled in Cuban issues,'' said the defense official.

  The switch surprised some regional specialists.

  ''Southcom does have some Latin American expertise and some of them do speak Spanish,'' said former U.S.
  Ambassador Ambler H. Moss Jr., director of The North-South Center at the University of Miami. Putting Cuba under
  Northcom ``makes as little sense as anything I can think of.''

  ''Southcom's got jurisdiction over things in the Caribbean. If you're going to worry about a situation in the Caribbean, as
  far as security threats, international crime, tracking drug planes or illegal migration, Cuba is part of the Caribbean,'' he
  said. ``That astounds me. They haven't thought it out at all.''

  ROLES DIVIDED

  At Southcom headquarters in Doral this week, officials awaited final word on the division of responsibilities. Air Force
  Maj. Eduardo Villavicencio, a spokesman, said his understanding was that Northcom would handle any future contact
  with Cuban armed forces in Havana and Southcom would still supervise the U.S. Navy base.

  ''I don't think Cuba's going to be a big deal,'' said Villavicencio. ``DOD [the Department of Defense] doesn't per se have
  a lot of dealings with the government of Cuba.''

  Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced the new command plan last week, laying to rest questions about the
  immediate future of the Pentagon's Miami outpost. Southcom survives as a strong entity run by a four-star general and
  a Northcom will be set up, probably at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado.

  An earlier proposal considered creation of an America's Command stretching from Canada to Argentina that would have
  diminished the role of Southcom, perhaps using a two-star general for contacts with Latin American and Caribbean
  counterparts.

  Rumsfeld did not spell out that Cuba would be included in the new Northcom turf, which officials said included the United
  States, Canada, Mexico and some U.S. territories in the Caribbean.

  Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who was 1994-96 commander of Southcom, said Monday that he ''hadn't heard a
  hint of'' the idea to exclude Cuba from Southcom. But, he said, he could argue both sides.

  ''It probably makes pretty decent sense because you're going to have to coordinate local law enforcement, local
  health-care providers when Castro dies,'' he said. ``Florida and the Gulf Coast states at every level will be engaged
  with the significant probability of a huge exodus from Cuba.

  ``Probably having Northern Command view Cuba as inside the envelope is not a bad idea. You've got to draw the line
  somewhere.''

  BORDER ISSUES

  McCaffrey suggested the decision was driven more by migration and border issues than the notion that Northcom would
  guard waters around the United States. ''I think it's more than the approaches. I think it's saying we're all sitting in the
  same bathtub with Mexico, Cuba and Canada'' on immigration matters.

  McCaffrey was a key player in 1995 in getting the Caribbean transferred to Southcom's authority from the Atlantic
  Command, based in Norfolk, Va. That coincided with Southcom's move to Miami as the United States ceded territory to
  Panama with the return of the Canal Zone.

  Advocates of integrating the Caribbean argued that there were regional issues such as drug trafficking and migration
  that needed to be minded from one headquarters.

  Some opponents wondered whether Southcom would be subject to local pressure in Miami's highly charged Cuban and
  Haitian politics. Since then, successive commanders of Southcom have kept relatively low profiles in Miami, sometimes
  addressing local business leaders but steering clear of local controversy.

  A congressional staffer with special interest in Southcom also said that the move likely meant that Northcom would
  concentrate on migration and border issues as part of its mission to enhance homeland defense.