U.S. Envoy on Cuba Reports Allies’ Anger

President Clinton’s special envoy on Cuba acknowledged Friday that he has encountered little but anger and venom in his first meetings with allied officials as he tries to work out a joint Cuba policy.

The anger is directed mainly at the Helms-Burton law, which penalizes foreign companies that do business in Cuba using property once owned by Americans.

Commerce Undersecretary Stuart Eizenstat said that, despite the anger over the law--sponsored by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) and approved by Congress in March--he hopes he can persuade foreign governments to join the United States in policies that seek to promote democratic change in Fidel Castro’s Cuba.

“My mission is not to convince them that the Helms-Burton Act is the best thing since sliced bread,” he said in a telephone conference call with reporters. “My mission is to promote democracy in Cuba.”

Eizenstat was named special envoy earlier this summer; in July, Clinton suspended for six months a controversial provision of the law that allows U.S. property owners to sue foreign companies doing business in Cuba using assets seized from U.S. owners after the revolution that swept Castro to power in 1959. The suspension was intended, in part, to ease foreign anger over the law.

Eizenstat was given the task of trying to calm U.S. allies and work out a new approach toward Cuba. He has met with Cuban American leaders in Miami and with government officials, business people and leaders of private organizations in Canada, Mexico, Ireland and Belgium. He heads to Spain, Germany and Britain next week.