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Yahoo!
March 19, 2002.
Cuba arrests drug trafficker
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer. Mon Mar 18, 6:17 PM
ET
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 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.
Colin Powell Interview Excerpts
Mon Mar 18, 2:43 PM ET
Excerpts from an interview Friday with Secretary of State Colin Powell
by The Associated Press:
On Castro and Cuba
"He and his regime are anachronisms in a world that is rapidly
changing. ... As a result of remaining outside of this (democratic trend in the
hemisphere), it has not thrived in a way that this exciting people with such
talent could thrive if they were under a different system. ... I think historic
forces and pressures are such that Cuba eventually will be a part of this
American revolutionary 21st century. How it will happen I don't know." | 
