Pubdate: Mon, 18 Mar 2002
Source: Las Vegas Sun (NV)
Copyright: 2002 Las Vegas Sun, Inc
Contact:  http://www.lasvegassun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/234

CUBA ARRESTS DRUG TRAFFICKER

HAVANA (AP) - Cuba announced Monday it was holding an alleged Colombian 
drug trafficker sought in his homeland and the United States and challenged 
the U.S. government to sign an agreement allowing the two countries to 
cooperate in the fight against narcotics smuggling.

The Cuban government did not say whether it would hand over Rafael Miguel 
Bustamante Bolanos if such an agreement was signed. But it suggested it 
would be more cooperative if accords existed.

"The possibility now exists for the U.S. administration to show that it is 
truly willing to seriously undertake the fight against those grave scourges 
of humanity while avoiding a double-standard approach," the Foreign 
Ministry said in a statement published in the Communist Party daily Granma.

"It is in the hands of the United States government to prove, before 
American and international public opinion, that it can sidestep the petty 
interests of small anti-Cuban groups and defend the American people's real 
interests," the statement added.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said he was 
unaware of Bustamante's arrest. A spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement 
Administration in Washington said she also had no immediate information 
about the developments described by the Cuban government.

For several years, Cuban officials have been trying to persuade Washington 
to sign such an agreement. They argue that this impoverished island has 
limited law enforcement resources and needs the technological resources and 
expertise of the United States in its fight against narcotics smuggling.

So far, the American government has expressed no interest in such an 
agreement. Cuba blames political pressures from anti-Castro Cuban exiles 
opposed to rapprochement between the two countries, which have had no 
diplomatic relations for four decades.

Bustamante entered Cuba on Jan. 6 from Jamaica using a Venezuelan passport 
identifying him as Alberto Pinto Jaramillo and was arrested at a Havana 
home on March 6, the statement said.

Cuban authorities said they learned of Bustamante's true identity and the 
accusations against him from other countries' anti-drug agencies.

The statement said authorities here established that Bustamante was 
involved with a major Bahamas-based trafficking organization and that about 
10 years ago he escaped from a Colombian jail where he was serving time for 
trafficking.

Bustamante also is sought in the United States, both in an investigation 
into drug trafficking and for escaping from a federal prison in Alabama 
where he was serving time for money laundering and cocaine trafficking, the 
statement said.

Arrested with Bustamante was Robert Lewis, of the Bahamas. Still in 
custody, the men will be tried here for falsification of documents and drug 
trafficking, the statement said.
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