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February 16, 2007

Cuba search engine trawls Castro speeches, not Web

HAVANA, 16 (Agencies) - Cuba built an Internet search engine (www.infosoc.cu/buscador) that allows users to trawl through speeches by Fidel Castro and other government sites, but does not browse Web pages outside the island, according to Reuters.

Cuba's first search engine can search any subject, but only on Cuban servers, or the Cuban intranet.

"The aim is to search Cuban Web sites without having to rely on foreign engines," said its creator, Leandro Silva.

The conference to unveiled the search engine underscored restrictions on Internet access in communist-run Cuba, which the government blames on U.S. trade sanctions.

Cubans cannot buy computers and Internet access is limited to state employees, academics and foreigners. Passwords are sold on the black market allowing shared Internet use for limited hours, usually at night. Cubans line up for hours to send e-mails on post office terminals that cannot surf the World Wide Web.

Cuba has the lowest rate of Internet usage in Latin America, 1.7 users per 100 inhabitants, according to the International Telecommunication Union.

Critics, such as rights watchdog Amnesty International, say Cuba restricts Internet usage to limit freedom of expression.

On Thursday, a Venezuelan communications official said that a new undersea fiber-optic cable from Cuba to Venezuela should be finished within two years, dramatically expanding Cuba's internet and telephone capacity.

Cuban official defends internet controls

By John Rice, Associated Press Writer. February 15, 2007.

HAVANA - A senior Cuban official has defended the country's Internet restrictions as a response to U.S. aggression and called for controlling "the wild colt of new technologies."

Communications Minister Ramiro Valdes opened an international conference on communication technologies Monday by complaining that Washington is choking Cuba's access to the Internet even as U.S. military and intelligence services use it to undermine the communist government.

Internet technologies "constitute one of the tools for global extermination," he said, referring to U.S. policies, but they "are also necessary to continue to advance down the path of development."

He defended Cuba's "rational and efficient" use of the Internet, which puts computers in schools and government computer clubs while prohibiting home connections for most citizens and blocking many sites with anti-government material.

"The wild colt of new technologies can and must be controlled," he said.

Valdes, who has fought alongside and then governed under Fidel Castro since 1953, is an influential figure in Cuba's communist hierarchy, although he was not among the small group Castro named to oversee its affairs under acting President Raul Castro after he fell ill in July.

Valdes expressed dire suspicions of U.S. intentions for the World Wide Web, citing post-Sept. 11 security measures and news reports that technology giants Microsoft and Google have cooperated with U.S. intelligence agencies.

"These actions bring the destabilizing power of the empire to threatening new levels," he said.

U.S. law calls for efforts to overthrow Castro's government through a sweeping commercial embargo and other policies. Valdes said those have choked the island's attempts to extend its Internet connections.

Valdes said there were about 1,300 delegates from 58 countries at the conference. The U.S. trade embargo with Cuba discourages many companies from doing business with Cuba - a fact emphasized by the lineup of conference exhibitors, which was weighted heavily toward companies from leftist allies such as China, Vietnam and Venezuela.

Since 1996, Cuba has used a relatively low-capacity satellite link to connect to the outside world because the United States has blocked it from connecting to nearby fiber-optic networks that run to the U.S. or through U.S.-administered Puerto Rico.

To overcome that problem, Cuba signed an agreement with ally Venezuela last month to lay a 965-mile fiber optic cable across the Caribbean Sea connecting the countries. It was not immediately clear when that line might be built.

Reporters Without Borders said in a statement Tuesday that although Internet use in Cuba is hampered by the U.S. blocking access to fiber-optic networks, an October report by the media advocacy group found that access is deliberately restricted, with less than 2 percent of the population online.

"It would anyway have been astonishing if a country that has no independent radio or TV station or newspaper did allow unrestricted access to the Internet," the group said.

Valdes said a way should be found to eradicate "the diffusion of pornography, encouragement of terrorism, racism, fraud, spread of fascist ideologies and any kind of manifestation of cybernetic crime."

Cable to expand Cuba's internet capacity

By John Rice, Associated Press Writer. February 15, 2007.

HAVANA - A new undersea fiber-optic cable from Cuba to Venezuela should be finished within two years, a Venezuelan communications official said Thursday, dramatically expanding Cuba's internet and telephone capacity.

Julio Duran, president of state-run Telecom Venezuela, told The Associated Press that the deal signed in late January calls for a line with a capacity of 160 gigabytes per second.

That's well over 1,000 times the capacity of Cuba's current satellite-based internet link, which was listed as 65 megabytes per second on upload and 124 megabytes a second on download by Cuban Communications Minister Ramiro Valdes.

It will break through what Cuban officials describe as choking restrictions imposed by the U.S. commercial embargo on Cuba, which they blame for blocking possible connections with existing privately owned fiber-optic lines in the region.

"It's a very important project, not only for Venezuela and Cuba, it's for all Latin American countries," Duran said during an interview at an informatics convention.

The project was part of a series of agreements signed late last month as Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez moved toward firmer political and economic ties with his Cuban ally.

Cuba has one of the region's lowest rates of internet usage. Officials say that is because the current bandwidth restrictions and U.S. threats against foreign suppliers of technology to Cuba force them to give priority to schools, researchers and essential businesses. Critics have accused the government of restricting internet access to limit Cubans' exposure to criticism or information from abroad.

India, Cuba refresh political, trade ties

HAVANA, 14 (AFP) - India and Cuba have renewed bilateral science and technology agreements and reviewed their relations during a visit by Indian Foreign Minister Anand Sharma.

"The economic relations with Cuba are going very well, but they will go even better," said Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage, who cautioned however that Tuesday's deals would not lead to "spectacular leaps" in bilateral relations.

Lage said Sharma's trip represented "the traditionally friendly and fraternal relations that have always existed between Cuba and India."

Sharma headed an Indian delegation to an intergovernmental meeting that opened in Havana Monday.

On the opening day, Sharma underscored "his country's willingness to increase economic and cooperation relations" with Cuba "to raise them to the rank of the political relations," the Cuban official newspaper Granma said.

"Our two countries have worked together in multilateral forums and also have worked very strongly in mutual interests," the Indian minister said.

Cuba and India have close political ties in various international forums, particularly in the United Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement. Cuba has held the NAM presidency since September and has reaped thousands of dollars in bilateral contracts in oil and biotechnology.

India's state-run oil company signed a six-year deal in September with Cuba for oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.

Under the deal, India's Oil and National Gas Corporation (ONGC) will explore blocs N-34 and N-35, which cover an area of 4,300 square kilometers (1,544 square miles) in Cuban waters.

ONGC already has a 30 percent interest in six other blocs in which Norway's Norsk Hydro also has 30 percent interest and Spain's Repsol YPF 40 percent.

Officials of the state-run Cuba Petroleos (CUPET) say a total of six companies have signed exploration deals for 16 blocs in the Gulf of Mexico.

Contracts have been signed, in addition to those with companies from India, Norway and Spain, with firms in Venezuela, China, Canada and Malaysia.

Cuba and India also are developing strong investments in biotechnology and joint production of medicines.

A new plant for the production of the HR3 antibody, a human monoclonal antibody developed by Cuban scientists and used in the treatment of head and neck cancer, opened in April in India.

A factory producing Cuban vaccine against Hepatitis B has been operating in the Asian country since 2002.

New Delhi has cooperated with Havana through the work of some 300 specialists in agriculture, electronics, information technology and industrial textiles.

Cuban jetliner bombing suspect faces US immigration trial

Marie Gilot, February 16, 2007.

EL PASO, United States (AFP) - An anti-Castro militant accused of bombing a Cuban jetliner in Venezuela three decades ago will face trial in the United States on May 11 on charges of lying in his citizenship application, a US judge has ruled.

Both Cuba and Venezuela have protested the fact that the United States has not pressed charges against Luis Posada Carriles, 78, for allegedly masterminding the 1976 bombing that killed 73 people.

Posada has denied his involvement in the jetliner bombing, but has reportedly admitted involvement in a string of hotel bombings in Cuba in 1997 and in a plot to kill Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Panama in 2000.

Venezuela and Cuba have also accused the United States of hypocrisy for refusing to extradite Posada to face terrorism charges in Venezuela.

"The United States has resorted to a new legal subterfuge to avoid charging Luis Posadas Carriles for what he really is: a murderer and a terrorist," said Cuba's Foreign Ministry earlier this month.

The US government tried to deport Posada after he held a May 2005 press conference in Miami which alerted immigration officers that he had entered the country illegally.

But a US judge ruled Posada cannot be deported to Cuba or Venezuela, where he was a naturalized citizen, because he may face torture there.

US authorities have so far been unable to find a country willing to take Posada, a native Cuban and former CIA operative who was trained to participate in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 and went on to become chief of operations at Venezuela's secret intelligence police, Disip, in the 1970s.

The crime for which he is being prosecuted in the United States is relatively minor, though it carries potentially stiff penalties.

Posada allegedly lied about how he had entered the country when applying for asylum. Court documents showed he said he was smuggled in by land in March 2005, but a government investigation found out that he really arrived by boat with other anti-Castro militants who are now also under indictment.

Posada has pleaded not guilty to the immigration charges for which he could face up to 10 years in prison for fraud and up to five years for each of six counts of making false statements.

He has been held in an El Paso detention facility for more than a year and a half and has been pressing to be released so he can be with his wife, children and grandchildren who live in Miami.

Posada, who is in ill health, was transferred to the El Paso facility because he could have access to a high-quality clinic and because authorities were fearful for his safety in Miami.

Santiago Alvarez, Posada's benefactor who allegedly helped bring Posada to the United States, is currently serving time on federal weapons charges out of Florida for amassing an illegal arsenal apparently meant to help topple Castro. That case did not involve Posada.

Actress Charlize Theron Says Cuba and America Are Both Un-Free

Larry Elder, February 15, 2007.

Did you know that Americans, like Cubans, suffer from a "lack of freedom"?

So says actress Charlize Theron. Born in South Africa under apartheid, the Oscar winner recently made a documentary about Cuban rappers.

Theron: While I would argue that there's a lack of freedom in America, I think, I think, you know, I think we tend to -

CNN: Yes, but you don't have Democrats being arrested and thrown in jail. And you can have a meeting in your house and -

Theron: No, but I do remember not too long ago some people getting fired from their jobs in television because they spoke up on how they felt about the war.

CNN: Do you think the lack of freedoms in Cuba are parallel to the lack of freedoms in the United States?

Theron: Well, I would, I would compare those two, yes, definitely.

The organization Reporters Without Borders sees things a bit differently. They say Cuba imprisons more journalists than any country other than China. About Cuba's highly touted health care system, Investor's Business Daily writes, "Ordinary Cubans may get abysmal care, but under the country's two-tier medical system, the communist party elite do [not]."

Nevertheless, Ms. Theron is onto something.

Maybe she meant the threat to the freedom of those who put together and aired the docudrama "The Path to 9/11." The five-hour miniseries aired several months ago on ABC, and examined not only the Bush administration's role in the historic tragedy, but also the Clinton administration's many missed opportunities to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. Democratic Sens. Harry Reid, Dick Durbin (Ill.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Byron Dorgan (N.D.) sent a letter to ABC's parent corporation, and subtly threatened the network's FCC license: "Presenting such deeply flawed and factually inaccurate misinformation to the American public and to children would be a gross miscarriage of your corporate and civic responsibility to the law, to your shareholders, and to the nation." The producers, indeed, made changes.

True, Ms. Theron did not protest this instance of the heavy boot of Big Government, but then, she was probably filming in Cuba.

Or maybe Ms. Theron meant the government's attack on "global warming deniers." Columnist Ellen Goodman recently wrote, "I would like to say we're at a point where global warming is impossible to deny. Let's just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers, though one denies the past and the other denies the present and future." And Weather Channel climatologist Heidi Cullen said, "If a meteorologist can't speak to the fundamental science of climate change, then maybe the AMS [American Meteorological Society] shouldn't give them a seal of approval."

Now, neither Goodman nor Cullen works for government. But Ted Kulongoski, the governor of Oregon, surely does. Lawmakers in Oregon, in 1991, created the state climate office at Oregon State University. Climatologist George Taylor holds the top position, and he says, "There are a lot of people saying the bulk of the warming of the last 50 years is due to human activities, and I don't believe that's true."

As a result, Gov. Kulongoski wants to make Taylor's position a governor-appointed one. "[Taylor] is Oregon State University's climatologist," said Kulongoski. "He's not the state of Oregon's climatologist. I just think there has to be somebody that says, 'this is the state position on this.'" University of Alabama's state climatologist, John Christy, sees a disturbing trend: "It seems if scientists don't express the views of the political establishment, they will be threatened, and that is a discomforting thought." Again, no word from the actress, since she's likely busy promoting her documentary, but I expect her to get on top of this real soon.

Or maybe Ms. Theron meant the actions of California's former Attorney General Bill Lockyer. In 2006, Lockyer filed a lawsuit against automakers, calling "greenhouse gases" from vehicle emissions a "public nuisance." The lawsuit asked a federal judge to compel automakers to disclose their dealings with global warming skeptics. "The climate skeptics," wrote Lockyer, "have played a major role in spreading disinformation about global warming." So, here, the attorney general wants a private company to tell the government with whom it's associating, because those associations lead to "spreading disinformation." Again, no word - yet - from Ms. Theron about this attack on the First Amendment's right of freedom of association, but I'm sure someone's contacting her publicist as we speak.

Or maybe Ms. Theron meant the intentions of Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio. Kucinich wants to reinstate the so-called "fairness doctrine" to tell broadcasters how to program their stations under the guise of "fairness and balance." President Reagan, in 1987, felt that the standard suppressed free speech. As a result, "right-wing" talk radio blossomed. This bothers folks like Rep. Kucinich, who seek to stop programmers from making decisions based on what the market wants. No word yet from Ms. Theron.

Or maybe . . .

Larry Elder is a syndicated radio talk-show host and author. His nationally syndicated radio program airs 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. PST and can also be heard on X-M and Sirius satellite radio. To find out more about Larry Elder, visit his web page at www.larryelder.com.

US food sales to Cuba remain strong

By Marc Frank, AAP via Yahoo!7 Finance, February 15, 2007.

Communist Cuba remained one of the more important markets for US farmers in 2006 despite a decades-old trade embargo, a US-based organisation that tracks the sales said.

US food exports to Cuba totalled $US340.4 million ($A437.5 million) last year, placing Cuba 34th out of 227 agricultural product export markets, the US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council reported, based on US government export data.

That is a slight dip from $US350 million ($A449.84 million) in 2005 and $US392 million ($A503.82 million) in 2004, the council said, with total sales to Cuba exceeding $US1.5 billion ($A1.93 billion) since they began five years ago.

The United States was the top exporter of food to Cuba in 2004 and 2005. The figures for 2006 are not yet available.

The council has monitored the cash-only sales since they were approved by the US Congress in 2000 as an exception to the trade embargo imposed on Cuba after Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.

Castro temporarily handed power to his brother and Defence Minister Raul Castro on July 31 after undergoing abdominal surgery, and he is still in recovery.

US businessmen report it has been business as usual since July, perhaps with a little less political grandstanding.

"At the trade fair this year we just quietly signed contracts without the usual hoopla and press conferences," a US trader involved in the business for years said, asking not to be named.

With Democrats now in control of the US Congress and the belief among some MPs that Castro's stepping aside provides an opportunity for improved relations, a number of bills have been introduced that would loosen trade and travel restrictions.

The Bush administration opposes the measures.

"Despite all the tough talk between the two governments, Cuba has paid American farmers $US1.5 billion ($A1.93 billion) since George Bush went to the White House," said Julia Sweig, an expert on Cuba at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank in Washington.

"This is a significant wedge in the door of the embargo, a door that may well swing wide open if the Congress gets rid of the travel ban and Americans start flocking to the island," she said.

Cuba has said the slight decline in purchases since 2004 was due to the Bush administration's steps to tighten restrictions on travel to Cuba and regulations covering payment for Cuban purchases.

The trade council's senior policy adviser, John Kavulich, said that was nonsense.

"The approximately three per cent decrease in agricultural commodity and food product exports from the United States to Cuba in 2006 was expected due to Cuba's increasing reliance upon countries which provide commercial, economic, and political support to Cuba, specifically Venezuela, China, and Vietnam," he said.

Wheat, chicken, corn, rice and soy products accounted for more than 70 per cent of US sales to Cuba in 2006, following a similar pattern in previous years.

US food sales to Cuba remain strong

AAP, February 15, 2007.

Communist Cuba remained one of the more important markets for US farmers in 2006 despite a decades-old trade embargo, a US-based organisation that tracks the sales said.

The United States was the top exporter of food to Cuba in 2004 and 2005. The figures for 2006 are not yet available.

The council has monitored the cash-only sales since they were approved by the US Congress in 2000 as an exception to the trade embargo imposed on Cuba after Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.

Castro temporarily handed power to his brother and Defence Minister Raul Castro on July 31 after undergoing abdominal surgery, and he is still in recovery.

US businessmen report it has been business as usual since July, perhaps with a little less political grandstanding.

"At the trade fair this year we just quietly signed contracts without the usual hoopla and press conferences," a US trader involved in the business for years said, asking not to be named.

The Bush administration opposes the measures.

"This is a significant wedge in the door of the embargo, a door that may well swing wide open if the Congress gets rid of the travel ban and Americans start flocking to the island," she said.

Cuba has said the slight decline in purchases since 2004 was due to the Bush administration's steps to tighten restrictions on travel to Cuba and regulations covering payment for Cuban purchases.

The trade council's senior policy adviser, John Kavulich, said that was nonsense.

Wheat, chicken, corn, rice and soy products accounted for more than 70 per cent of US sales to Cuba in 2006, following a similar pattern in previous years.

Mexico aims to improve ties with Cuba

MEXICO CITY, 13 (AP) - President Felipe Calderon's administration has held discussions with Cuba on improving relations after a series of diplomatic spats in recent years, Mexico's foreign secretary said.

"Mexico has a border with the Caribbean and it is a top priority to relaunch dialogue and political understanding," Patricia Espinosa said in a speech before the Senate on Tuesday. "With Cuba, we have had diplomatic contacts with the aim of promoting a rapprochement."

Espinosa also said that the government will work with diverse sectors of U.S. society to fight a planned 700 miles of fencing to be built along on the U.S.-Mexico border. Calderon, a conservative who took office in December, has opposed the proposed border fence.

Mexico has historically been friendly with communist-run Cuba, and is the only Latin American country that has never broken ties with Fidel Castro's government - despite U.S. pressure to do so.

But relations with Havana soured in 2002 when then-President Vicente Fox's government supported a U.N. Human Rights Commission resolution condemning Cuba. Later that year, Fox was embarrassed when Cuba released a recording of the Mexican leader urging Castro to leave a summit to avoid a confrontation with President Bush.

In 2004, the two nations temporarily withdrew their ambassadors after Mexico accused Havana of meddling in its internal affairs and alleged that members of Cuba's Communist Party were holding unauthorized political meetings in Mexico.

OAS chief seeks dialogue with Cuba

AP via Yahoo! News, February 12, 2007.

LIMA, Peru - The head of the Organization of American States said Monday he is open to a dialogue with Cuba, which was expelled from the body more than 40 years ago.

OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza told a news conference in the Peruvian capital, Lima, that the body should initiate "at least a significant dialogue with Cuba," since many OAS member countries maintain diplomatic relations with the island nation.

Cuba was expelled from the OAS in 1962 after member nations said its communist regime went against OAS principles.

"I'm not calling for Cuba's return to the OAS ... but it seems to me that the OAS should get involved in at least initiating a significant dialogue with Cuba."

"The sooner the better," Insulza said of potential talks, alluding to the fact that OAS members do not need to wait until Cuban President Fidel Castro's death to discuss the country's possible return to the body.

Castro, 80, provisionally ceded power to his brother on July 31 after undergoing intestinal surgery.

The United States is one of the few OAS member countries that opposes Cuba's return to the OAS.

Canada's silence on Washington's Cuba policy speaks volumes, experts say

By Jennifer Ditchburn

OTTAWA, 11 (CP) - The moment Fidel Castro passes away - or at least the moment the world finds out about it - has taken on almost mythic proportions south of the border.

In Washington, there are elaborate plans to help Cuba with its "transition." An entire government commission has been set up for the purpose, with a $80-million price-tag to prove it "stands ready to work with the Cuban people to attain political and economic liberty." In Miami, anti-Castro expatriates plan to pack the Orange Bowl for a celebration, and some contemplate potentially incendiary "aid" flotillas destined for the island's shores.

In Canada, experts say the political silence over Castro's failing health speaks volumes about this country's commitment to pursue a different path - a policy of constructive engagement.

Canadians continue to visit Cuba by the millions each year. Canadian businesses pursue mining, tourism and other interests on the island. And the Canadian government maintains normal diplomatic relations with Havana, normal being the operative word, says longtime Cuba observer John Kirk.

"The policy of constructive engagement even during Conservative and Liberal governments that didn't look kindly on Cuba has maintained a degree of stability in the bilateral relationship," said Kirk, a professor at Dalhousie University and co-author of "Canada-Cuba Relations: The Other Good Neighbor Policy."

"Like any country with which we have a normal relationship, whether its Canada and Spain arguing over fishing ten years ago...we have a normal relationship which means that we agree to disagree."

That normal relationship has meant that Canadian diplomats have communicated freely with the Castro regime, and with the few civil society groups that have been able to take root in the communist country. Three of the Department of Foreign Affairs' top bureaucrats have been posted to Havana in the past and bring with them a wealth of contacts and knowledge.

That type of access is impossible for U.S. diplomats, who because of their country's 46-year embargo of Cuba have only a small interests section run out of the Swiss embassy. Their movements are restricted to the capital.

Now, with Castro still recovering from gastric surgery in July and his brother Raul governing the country, Canada's ties to Cuba have been labelled "useful" to the United States. Last December, a high-ranking U.S. offical visiting Ottawa said pointedly that Canada could "play an important role expressing some expectations about what a successful and peaceful transition to democracy might look like."

But no Canadian bureaucrat or politician to date has acknowledged or backed Washington's master plan for Cuba, or expressed its "expectations" for what should or should not occur once Castro passes away.

"That's very significant. Nobody supports it," says Carleton University's Arch Ritter, another veteran observer of Cuban politics.

"The United States continues to be all alone in its policy on Cuba. They don't seem to get lonely there. Their policies have failed for so long, nobody has backed them."

Adds Kirk: "Since the foreign policy of the Harper government has been increasingly aligned with the United States, then it makes sense to see if you can push the envelope a little bit by seeing if Canada will come onside. I think Canada is too smart to get sucked in by enticements by Washington."

The last public statement this government has made about Cuba was last summer, when Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay emphasized Canada's "sovereign, independent position vis-a-vis our relations with Cuba." In November, Canada was among 183 other countries to vote against the U.S. embargo of Cuba at the United Nations General Assembly.

So what exactly would happen if Castro died, say, tomorrow?

Kirk says protocol would dictate MacKay would be on the first plane to Havana, there to express condolences and press the flesh.

"The Canadian government would say we're happy to help in any way we can...if you want to look at a freer market economy or if you want to look at opening up the political system we have a lot of experience, we'd be happy to help you," Kirk says.

"The Cubans would be very polite and say, thanks but no thanks, we're interested in increasing tourism numbers, trade numbers, exchanges in any way we can ... but that's it. Thanks for coming down."

Both Kirk and Ritter, who visit the island regularly, emphasize that nothing is likely to shift in Cuba for many years, with or without Castro. They note that Cuba's economy has been getting progressively stronger over the past decade, with higher nickel prices, cheap oil from Venezuelan ally Hugo Chavez and more tourists - all developments that point away from civil unrest in the country. Raul Castro, as longtime head of the successful and respected Armed Forces, has a firm position in the government.

While the new aggressive messages from Washington might serve to entrench the regime, say Kirk and Ritter, Canada's approach and that of other countries simply won't make much difference either way.

"Whether with the stick or with the carrot, Cuba's going to march to its own drum," said Kirk. "I think the sensible policy is to leave Cuba be and let it figure out what it wants to do itself."

Cuba sends key drug suspect to Colombia

By Cesar Garcia, Associated Press Writer, February 9, 2007.

BOGOTA, Colombia - Cuba deported reputed drug kingpin Luis Hernando Gomez Bustamante to Colombia, which plans to extradite him to the United States to face trafficking and money laundering charges, officials said Thursday.

Gomez, an alleged boss of the Norte del Valle cartel known by his alias "Rasguno," had been held in Cuba since his 2004 arrest at Havana's main airport. He fled Colombia after Washington offered a $5 million reward for the capture of that country's top drug traffickers.

Cuba's government said Gomez was turned over to Colombian authorities Thursday at Havana's international airport. Oscar Galvis, a spokesman for the Colombia's DAS intelligence agency, confirmed to The Associated Press that Gomez arrived in Colombia on an air force flight from Cuba.

The Cuban statement did not mention Colombia's plans for Gomez. Cuba has no extradition treaty with the United States and harbors some suspects wanted in the United States who are considered political refugees here.

But a Colombian official said Wednesday that an order had already been signed to send Gomez to the United States. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to divulge the information.

Gomez is wanted on a U.S. indictment in New York on drug trafficking, racketeering and money-laundering charges.

His extradition appears to be more a result of his desire to get out of Cuban jail than a desire by Havana to improve relations with Washington. Last year, Gomez expressed to Colombian media his desire to leave the Cuban jail even if it meant extradition to the United States.

He would be the most senior reputed drug boss extradited to the United States since Cali cartel chief Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela was handed over in March 2005.

Gomez's Miami-based attorney, Oscar Rodriguez, told the AP on Wednesday he had no information on the deportation and would not answer questions about Gomez's intentions until he has had a chance to speak with his client.

The Norte del Valle cartel, the most powerful traditional drug organization in Colombia, is believed to account for as much as 60 percent of the cocaine consumed in the United States, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

However, many of its top bosses have been captured in recent years and a campaign by the U.S. Treasury Department had succeeded in freezing many of their assets, including front companies.

In March of 2004, Colombian authorities seized $100 million worth of Gomez's assets including 68 farms, 24 offices and 17 parking lots.

According to prosecutors, Rasguno went from pumping gas at a petrol station in 1991 to declaring property worth more than half a million dollars a year later.

AP writer John rice in Havana, Cuba Bogota contributed to this report.

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