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  Cuba Urges Cooperation On Drug Interdiction
Posted by FoM on March 19, 2002 at 10:01:36 PT
By Peter Slevin, Washington Post Staff Writer 
Source: Washington Post  

justice The Cuban government yesterday announced the arrest of a convicted Colombian drug trafficker wanted by the U.S. Marshals Service and publicly called on the Bush administration to negotiate agreements to fight drugs and terrorism.

Rafael Miguel Bustamante Bolanos, who escaped from an Alabama prison in 1992, was arrested in Havana on March 6 after the marshals service relayed news that he was in Cuba. The Cubans charged him and a Bahamian citizen with drug trafficking and document forgery, the Cuban foreign ministry reported.

Bustamante is the third fugitive from the United States to be arrested by Cuba in recent months. The first two, Washington drug defendant Jesse James Bell and alleged Georgia child molester William Joseph Harris, have been extradited to the United States, according to U.S. officials.

State Department officials greeted Cuba's offer with skepticism. They said the deep divide in U.S.-Cuban relations will preclude any broad agreement until the government headed by Fidel Castro improves its record on such issues as democracy and human rights.

"We're not going to be entering into any sort of umbrella agreement on anti-narcotics or anti-drug trafficking with the Cubans," a State Department official said. The official said contacts on law enforcement and human smuggling will continue case by case: "It's going to be looked at individually."

Cuban government officials in Washington and Havana met with U.S. diplomats last week to renew a 2001 request for bilateral agreements on drug trafficking, terrorism and migration.

The move seemed designed to appeal to members of Congress, including Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who say the Bush administration should work more closely with Cuba on narcotics matters.

"If we can stop the flow of drugs with Castro's assistance, we ought to take him up on that offer," Specter said earlier this year.

Source: Washington Post (DC)
Author: Peter Slevin, Washington Post Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, March 19, 2002; Page A12
Copyright: 2002 The Washington Post Company
Contact: letterstoed@washpost.com
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com

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