By JUAN O. TAMAYO
             Herald Staff Writer

             The Clinton administration's refusal to review U.S. policies on Cuba reflects the
             lack of political profits available to those who would improve bilateral ties,
             especially while Havana shows no sign of compromising and a U.S. presidential
             election looms, analysts say.

             The relaxations of some U.S. restrictions on Havana also unveiled Monday show
             only Washington's desire to nibble around the edges of the Cuba policy iceberg
             and clear away a massive bureaucratic backlog, officials added.

             ``It looks like the administration took the path of least resistance, said Florida
             International University Professor Lisandro Perez, ``rejecting a tough policy review
             but approving minor changes.

             Speculation about major changes in U.S.-Cuba relations had been sweeping
             Washington since 24 U.S. senators and former Secretaries of State Henry
             Kissinger and Larry Eagleburger proposed last fall that Clinton name a bipartisan
             commission to ``reassess U.S. policies toward the island.

             Both backers and critics had viewed the proposal as a thinly veiled call for major
             changes in the decades-old embargo, and the administration's rejection Monday
             disappointed its supporters.

             ``They are missing the opportunity to have a much broader debate on policies . . .
             and blocking the flow of ideas, said Phil Peters, a Cuba analyst and fellow at the
             Alexis de Tocqueville Institute, a Virginia think tank.

             Three basic reasons

             Knowledgeable Washington officials said President Clinton and Vice President Al
             Gore, a likely candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000,
             vetoed the proposal for three basic reasons:

               The politicians, policy experts, academics, business people, humanitarian groups
             and other Cuba experts who advocate improving relations with Havana dominate
             intellectual debates but carry little political weight.

             ``This is not the heartland speaking, said one official in Washington. ``This is a thin
             crowd, a bunch with good names but not a lot of political clout in terms of votes.

               Several policy experts and others who began advocating better U.S.-Cuba
             relations after the Cold War ended have now grown disillusioned with President
             Fidel Castro's refusal to embrace significant change.

             ``After a few years of hard work to promote some advances, people are saying,
             `Hey, shouldn't he have to make a move also?'  said one businessman who has
             long advocated lifting the U.S. trade and travel embargo on Cuba.

               No potential candidate in the 2000 elections wants to anger Cuban-American
             voters without reason.

             ``You simply cannot do very much on Cuba or be very adventurous when politics
             are on the line, said Richard Nuccio, former Clinton White House advisor on
             Cuba issues.

             Little more than a gesture

             Cuba experts in fact saw the relaxations of U.S. regulations on Cuba also unveiled
             Monday as little more than a gesture toward disappointed backers of the so-called
             Kissinger proposal.

             Many of the changes in fact had been readied by the Treasury and State
             Departments 18 months ago to dissolve a large backlog of applications for licenses
             for contacts with Cuba, said one businessman with regular contacts with Treasury
             officials.

             Treasury has been overwhelmed by requests from academics and humanitarian
             groups for permits to travel to Cuba, and to deliver food and medicine packages
             to nongovernment organizations such as the Catholic Church.

             Most of the changes to be announced today come under the so-called Track II of
             the 1992 Torricelli Law, which allows people-to-people contacts as a way of
             promoting the growth of civil society in Cuba.

             ``It's interesting that no matter what people say of Track II, it comes back again
             and again as the best set of options for trying to create change in Cuba, Nuccio
             said.
 

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