Coral Gables, Florida

“CUBA’S FUTURE is in the hands of Cubans,” declares James Cason, mission chief at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. He is addressing a seminar of earnest Cuba watchers hosted by the University of Miami’s Cuba Transition Project (CTP).

Before this crowd, the puckish Cason needs no introduction. Since assuming his post in September 2002, he has turned his office into a vanguard of the Cuban democracy movement. He’s befriended dissidents. More than that, he’s visited their homes and had them over to his. He’s also cranked up U.S. aid–radios, books, computers, and other materials. Cason recently drew attention to human rights by building a replica of a Cuban prison cell in his backyard.