Pubdate: Tue, 19 Mar 2002
Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2002, The Tribune Co.
Contact:  http://www.tampatrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446
Author:  Anita Snow, Associated Press

CUBA HOLDS COLOMBIAN DRUG SMUGGLER, SOLICITS U.S. ACCORD

HAVANA - 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.

``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 said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher and a 
spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration said they were 
unaware of Bustamante's arrest.

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.

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 March 6, the statement said.
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