AMERICA and Cuba are embroiled in a diplomatic row involving Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus and a set of Christmas lights.

In a transformation of Havana’s main road into a Theatre of the Absurd, motorists were invited yesterday to drive across a cartoon of a bald eagle, America’s national symbol, in revenge for a politically charged Christmas display organised by Washington’s top diplomat in Cuba, James Cason.

“It will be here for some time. Everyone will have a chance to run over this,” said the artist, Ernesto Padrón, who also helped to paint a two-storey caricature of Mr Cason as Santa Claus riding a sleigh pulled by soldiers and carrying a sack full of bombs. The images appeared outside the US interests section in Havana. America has had no embassy there since severing relations with Cuba in 1961, two years after Fidel Castro’s revolution.

The festive fracas began this month when Mr Cason, whose forceful shows of support for the pro-democracy movement have aggravated Señor Castro, put a Christmas display outside the US mission building that took a swipe at the regime’s repressiveness. Standing defiantly among a glowing Santa motif, a giant tinsel Frosty the Snowman, pink and white striped candy sticks and a sign wishing passers-by a Happy Christmas in Spanish was a board proclaiming “75” in lights — a reference to the 75 dissidents jailed in Cuba last year for “subversive” activities.

In reply, Cuban government officials had a large billboard placed opposite the US mission, bearing oversized photographs of US soldiers abusing prisoners in Iraq, stamped with the words “Made in the USA” and “fascists”. A swastika was thrown in for good measure.

Mr Cason, who arrived in Havana two years ago, has made no secret of his meetings with dissidents and has turned his Havana headquarters into a resource centre for the pro- democracy lobby, handing out thousands of books on human rights and shortwave radios to give Cubans an idea of the world beyond their island’s state-controlled media.

Mr Cason rejected suggestions by Ricardo Alarcón, the parliamentary Speaker — to whom he refers mockingly as alacrán, meaning “scorpion” — that he is simply spoiling for a fight.

“What’s provocative is that they arrested these 75 people and found them guilty just because they were thinking and speaking independently,” Mr Cason said, refusing demands to remove his display and insisting that his seasonal exhibit was a cheery source of light “in a generally dreary city”.

Determined not to let Mr Cason have the last say, police closed off the road outside the US mission on Wednesday to allow artists and students to paint the murals. Spanning all four lanes of the road, the eagle image is a copy of a cartoon image used on Cuban television to mock American “imperialism”.

It bears a letter “B” on its chest, a reference to the US-imposed economic blockade of Cuba, known as the bloqueo. “This character represents the blockade and will be squashed by all the cars and people who pass by here,” said Señor Padrón.

The row did not appear to affect Señor Castro. who walked in public yesterday for the first time since a fall two months ago, drawing a standing ovation from hundreds of politicians attending a year-end meeting of the National Assembly.

The Cuban President, 78, entered the room on the arm of a schoolgirl, walked in front of the gathered politicians and up some steps, and took his place on the platform at Havana’s Convention Palace. Señor Castro shattered his left kneecap and broke his right arm when he stumbled during an official engagement.

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