By ANDRES VIGLUCCI
Herald Staff Writer

A leading Democratic critic of the U.S. embargo against Cuba said Friday he
will file bills in the Senate that would lift all restrictions on the sale of food and
medicine to Cuba and end the prohibition on travel to the island by U.S.
citizens.

Introduction of the measures would mark the second time in a year that Sen.
Christopher Dodd of Connecticut has attempted to ease key aspects of the
four-decade-old embargo. A bill he filed last year to allow unrestricted food
and drug sales to Cuba by U.S. companies went nowhere.

But Dodd, speaking at a workshop of journalists and academics in Miami,
said there is ``growing momentum'' among both Democrats and Republicans in
the Senate for lifting trade sanctions against Cuba.

Dodd said his measure on food and medicine sales, which he expects to
introduce soon, will be co-sponsored by Republican Sen. John Warner of
Virginia. An identical bill will be filed in the House by Rep. Jose Serrano,
D-N.Y.

That would be followed later in the session by a bill allowing free travel to
Cuba by U.S. citizens, Dodd said. U.S. citizens are now generally barred from
visiting the island, with certain exceptions for exiles, journalists and academics,
among others.

Dodd, professing ``unlimited respect'' for the experiences of Cuban exiles,
contended that opening Cuba to U.S. trade and American visitors would help
spur peaceful political change on the island.

Though Dodd said the embargo is not the direct cause of shortages of food
and medicine in Cuba, he said restrictions on their sale by U.S. companies
constitute a ``de facto prohibition.'' Recent initiatives by the Clinton
administration to ease the restrictions don't go far enough, he said.

``At its core, our policy is one that denies food to hungry Cubans, and
severely limits the supply of medicines and medical equipment to the Cuban
people,'' Dodd said, addressing a conference sponsored by Florida
International University's Latin American and Caribbean Center. ``It is a policy
that is inconsistent with American values and interests. It's been a failure and
it's inhumane.''

Dodd's proposals are sure to run into determined opposition inside and
outside the Senate.

A spokeswoman for the Cuban American National Foundation, which helped
derail previous efforts by Dodd to weaken the embargo's restrictions on food
and medicine sales, said the group would again oppose his proposals.

The foundation's Ninoska Perez Castellon called Dodd's timing ``unfortunate,''
noting that it coincided with a U.N. Human Rights Commission vote in Geneva
that condemned abuses in Cuba.

``What is behind all these types of measures is American companies interested
only in doing business in Cuba,'' she said, referring to corporate interests that
are actively lobbying for a lifting of the embargo. ``I think it's very unfortunate
that Sen. Dodd would pick a day like today to talk about introducing
measures that would benefit those who are interested in doing business in
Cuba rather than in promoting human rights in Cuba.''

Perez Castellon said CANF would also oppose easing travel to the island.

``I wonder if they would have promoted tourism to South Africa when
apartheid existed there, which is exactly what they will be doing in Cuba,'' she
said. ``Cubans in Cuba cannot rent cars, cannot check into hotels. This is the
apartheid Cuban people have to endure.''

Dodd, a four-term senator and member of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, tried twice last year to ease food and medicine sales to Cuba. The
first proposal, contained in an amendment to an agriculture bill, was defeated
after foundation leaders allied themselves with New Jersey Democratic Sen.
Robert Torricelli and Florida Sens. Bob Graham, a Democrat, and Connie
Mack, a Republican. A later bill died without reaching the Senate floor.