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MIAMI, 12 (AP) - Two new polls suggest Cuban-Americans in Florida are
softening their stance toward their communist homeland, with one finding
majority support for a dialogue with the Cuban government.
A Miami Herald poll released Tuesday found that more than half of 400
Cuban-Americans surveyed in Miami-Dade and Broward counties support a dialogue
between Cuban exiles and Cuban government officials.
"Cuban-Americans in south Florida have reached the point of exhaustion
at railing against the dictator and now maybe they're willing to do something
differently," pollster Rob Schroth said. "These numbers indicate that
a significant number of Cuban-Americans have clearly decided that ousting the
dictator is not as realistic as dialogue with a democratic purpose."
A second poll found nearly 70 percent of Cuban-Americans believe dissidents
in Cuba play a more important role in a democratic transition than exiled
leaders. The survey, also of 400 Cuban-Americans in the same two counties, was
conducted for the Cuba Study Group. Both polls had margins of error of 4.9
percentage points.
In recent months, the Cuban American National Foundation offered to meet
with high-ranking members of the Cuban government — barring Fidel Castro
(news - web sites) and his brother, Raul — to discuss a democratic
transition in power. Fifty-four percent in the Herald poll said they approve of
the CANF initiative.
In 1994, a similar poll by WLTV-Univision 23 found just 18 percent of
Cuban-Americans supported a dialogue while 73 percent felt the best way to
topple Castro was to isolate Cuba. | 
