WASHINGTON - Cuban diplomats here send some of their children to a school set up by their mission. Their spouses tend to work at the mission. And often, four or five diplomats' families live in the same apartment blocks in the wealthy suburb of Montgomery County.

Working and living in the capital of their communist government's longtime foe, Cuban diplomats generally seem to lead quiet and private lives -- fueled by the perception that the U.S. government is watching their every move.

They are most visible in Congress, where they assiduously lobby for proposals to relax U.S. sanctions on Cuba. But that could grow harder in coming weeks. The Bush administration is said to be considering retaliation for what it claims are harassments that U.S. diplomats face in Havana, including the poisoning of family pets and the dumping of feces in U.S. diplomats' homes.

A U.S. government official, who asked for anonymity because of the delicate nature of the issue, said reprisals against the Cuban mission in Washington were ''always under consideration.'' He declined to elaborate.

Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, R-Miami, is pushing a measure that would force diplomats from countries designated as state sponsors of terrorism -- including Cuba -- to register all their lobbying contacts in Congress, presumably making congressional offices more reluctant to talk to the Cubans.

The two countries' missions in Havana and Washington are known as Interests Sections instead of embassies because the governments have had no formal diplomatic relations since the 1960s. Officially extensions of the Swiss embassies in those capitals, they nevertheless operate from the same buildings that once served as their embassies.

Cuba has 25 diplomats accredited in Washington, led by Dagoberto Rodríguez. Eighty others work at Cuba's U.N. mission in New York City, according to the State Department.

TRAVEL LIMITED

For many years, the department has required Cuban diplomats to obtain permission to travel outside the Washington beltway, just as U.S. diplomats are limited to Havana and its immediate surroundings. U.S. diplomats in Cuba also are denied official contacts with authorities there, State Department officials said.

In 2003, then-Assistant Secretary of State Otto Reich, a Cuban American, tightened that further, limiting travel outside the designated areas to personal and consular reasons. Permission for such travel must be requested 72 hours in advance. Cuban diplomats need only notify the State Department that they will enter or leave this country, but can do so only through Miami, Washington and New York.

The State Department has allowed so few trips to U.S. territory outside the beltway that the Cubans rarely bother to ask anymore, said Wayne Smith, a former head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana who has frequent contact with Cuban diplomats.

''I have a sense they've more or less given up on it,'' he said.

The Cuban Interests Section did not respond to Miami Herald requests for interviews. Most of the people who described the Cubans' lives here, such as their schools and apartments, asked for anonymity to avoid affecting their friendships.

U.S. officials say that for Havana's diplomats, a posting in Washington is no cushy affair, especially since their budgets shrank after the Cuban economy plunged into crisis following the end of Soviet subsidies in the early 1990s.

''They are dedicated revolutionaries,'' one former U.S. official said, declining to be identified because the issue of Cuba often involves classified matters.

COMPLAINTS RARE

Members of the diplomatic and nongovernment communities in contact with Cuban diplomats say they rarely complain openly about the U.S. restrictions on them.

But when their e-mail system crashed several months ago, they blamed it on U.S. harassment, according to people in frequent contact with members of the mission. The Cuban diplomats resorted to using Yahoo! accounts.

The Bush administration denies it is messing up their Internet connections. ''If they have a problem, they do need to call their Internet service provider,'' said one Bush administration official.

Under President Bush, the Cuban diplomats appear to have hunkered down more than usual and even cut back on their social engagements.

During the Clinton administration, one journalist who covered Cuban issues recalled, the Interests Section attempted to reach out to Cuban Americans by organizing events like Cuban movie nights.

But the mission hasn't cut back completely on its social engagements. It had a well-attended send-off party for press attaché Lázaro Herrera earlier this year. And a year ago, it held a gala dinner highlighting Cuban culture, music and food. The event was organized by Professionals in the City, a group that sets up events so young professionals can meet each other. A group of Cuban-American activists tried to distribute anti-Castro literature at the dinner and was forcibly evicted by members of the mission.

U.S. officials insist that the Cubans have it easy next to their U.S. counterparts in Havana. While Cubans can freely roam the halls of Congress, officials in Washington say, U.S. diplomats in Havana are systematically denied any permission to meet with government members, journalists or municipal officials. They must import many items such as cars, and often face long delays in customs.

Cubans can buy whatever they need in Washington, within the confines of the beltway. The exception is big-ticket purchases like cars; they usually involve banks that prefer to clear transfers with the State Department.

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