Keating Sees Cuban Threat

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17--The controversy over Cuba turned today toward the danger of Cuban-based Latin-American subversion, with a Republican and a Democrat urging action to meet that threat. Sens. Kenneth B. Keating, (R.N.Y.) and Hubert H. Humphrey (D-Minn.) stressed the theme of hemispheric subversion.

Keating, a leading Republican critic of the Kennedy administration's handling of the problem of Soviet military power in Cuba, said he had "never suggested" the possibility of an invasion of the U.S. He said, however, that Soviet military forces in Cuba threaten to engulf Latin America unless they are removed. He did not specify the steps he feels must be taken.

Humphrey, like Keating, singled out Venezuela as one of the Latin-American countries most gravely menaced by Communist subversion. The Senate majority whip said Venezuelan President Romulo Betancourt, due here Tuesday on a state visit, should be given assurances that the U.S. would not tolerate any sort of attack on his country.