Pubdate: Sun, 27 Mar 2005
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2005 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Gary Marx
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

U.S., CUBA JOIN FORCES AGAINST COMMON FOE: DRUG TRADE

State Department Says Officials On Island Share Data

HAVANA -- As relations between the U.S. and Cuba sink to the lowest point 
in years, the two countries are cooperating in one key area of mutual 
interest: anti-narcotics operations.

Despite increasing hostility and a lack of formal diplomatic ties, Cuba's 
top anti-narcotics officials regularly share information with the U.S. 
Coast Guard on drug traffickers passing near Cuba en route to the Bahamas 
and the United States, according to U.S. officials and a new State 
Department report.

In 2004, Cuban authorities reported 28 sightings of suspected drug boats 
and airplanes to their U.S. counterparts, leading to the U.S. Coast Guard's 
seizure of three speedboats and nearly 6,600 pounds of illegal narcotics, 
the report said.

Overall, the U.S. Coast Guard seized about 83,000 pounds of cocaine and 
marijuana in the Caribbean last year, according to official figures.

U.S. officials describe the Cuban efforts as helpful but limited, 
explaining that Cuba doesn't have the capability to interdict or deter the 
flood of drug traffickers heading north through Cuban waters and airspace.

U.S. authorities also are angry at Cuba for not turning over Luis Hernando 
Gomez Bustamante, an alleged top Colombian trafficker seized at Havana's 
airport in June 2004 on an expired Mexican passport.

A suspected leader of the powerful Norte del Valle cartel, Gomez Bustamante 
was indicted last year by a federal grand jury in New York on narcotics 
trafficking and money laundering charges.

Colombia has requested his extradition, but he will likely end up in the 
United States for prosecution.

Few problems in Cuba

The State Department document, titled "International Narcotics Control 
Strategy Report," said that unlike much of the Caribbean, Cuba has little 
drug production, trafficking or drug-related corruption, even though the 
communist island sits astride one of the world's major trafficking routes.

Cuba also is building three new patrol boats to improve migrant and drug 
interdiction, according to the Communist Party daily Granma.

"There are opportunities for good communications on drug shipments, and 
there is evidence they will notify us and incidents where they are 
helpful," Asa Hutchinson said in an interview just before his retirement 
March 1 as Homeland Security undersecretary.

"But overall, it is fairly limited in terms of the resource capability of 
Cuba and because of the lack of formal channels and relations between the 
two nations," said Hutchinson, who was previously director of the U.S. Drug 
Enforcement Administration.

A U.S. Coast Guard officer stationed in Havana is one of the main conduits 
of anti-narcotics cooperation between the two nations.

Cuban officials blame the U.S. for limiting anti-narcotics cooperation. A 
Cuban proposal for a bilateral anti-drug accord has been rebuffed by 
American officials, who argue that Cuba should, instead, sign a 
multilateral Caribbean narcotics agreement that U.S. authorities believe is 
more effective.

Daniel Erikson, director of Caribbean programs at the Inter-American 
Dialogue, a Washington-based policy group, said Cuba's anti-drug record 
compares favorably with those of other Latin American and Caribbean nations.

He said President Fidel Castro has made fighting drugs a domestic priority 
because the Cuban leader understands that drug trafficking could become a 
destabilizing force in Cuba, as it has in other nations.

"Ironically, the fact that Cuba is a police state gives it greater control 
over its territory," Erikson said. "Cuba does not have those transnational 
youth gangs involved in the drug trade that exist throughout Latin America 
and the Caribbean."

"If in the future, even under a democracy, Cuba developed this type of 
criminal activity, it would be a serious concern for the United States," he 
said.

Experts say Cuba's coastline of 3,500 nautical miles and its more than 
4,100 islands, inlets and cays provide an ideal environment for smugglers.

Traffickers from Colombia, Jamaica and elsewhere use Cuban waters and 
airspace to evade U.S. boats and aircraft in the Caribbean, according to 
interviews and documents.

In some cases, traffickers fly small aircraft from Jamaica and drop cocaine 
or marijuana bales in or near Cuban waters, where boats from the Bahamas 
retrieve the drugs for shipment to the United States, U.S. law-enforcement 
officials say.

Jamaican and Bahamian speedboats packed with marijuana also hug Cuba's 
eastern coastline, trying to avoid an increased U.S. law-enforcement 
presence in the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti.

The State Department report estimated that at least 20 metric tons of 
cocaine passed through "the Jamaica-Cuba-Bahamas vector" in 2004, though it 
said drug trafficking through Cuban territory "decreased measurably" 
because of the U.S. law-enforcement presence in the Caribbean.

About a third of the cocaine and marijuana entering the U.S. passes through 
the Caribbean, with most of the rest going through Mexico or up the Pacific 
coast, according to the DEA.

While U.S. officials credit Cuba for providing information on traffickers 
passing near the island, the report said Cuba's anti-narcotics efforts are 
hampered by a failure to use warning or disabling fire to stop drug boats 
racing to U.S. shores.

Public awareness campaign

Still, the report acknowledged that Cuba has an aggressive public awareness 
campaign to reduce domestic trafficking and has carried out a broad 
crackdown on illicit drugs, which Cuban officials blame mostly on the 
influx of foreign tourists.

Cuban authorities also respond quickly when a trafficker pursued by law 
enforcement dumps drug cargo into Cuban waters. Officials are trying to 
prevent the drugs from washing ashore and falling into the hands of residents.

"They scramble very fast," said one U.S. law-enforcement source.

Cuba reported seizing more than 3 tons of drugs, primarily marijuana, in 
2004, according to Granma. More than 1,800 people were prosecuted for drug 
trafficking; 66 percent got at least 6-year prison sentences.

The internal crackdown combined with interdiction efforts has kept drug use 
in Cuba far lower than it is elsewhere in the Caribbean, experts say.

"For us, drugs represent an issue of national security," Lt. Col. Miguel 
Guilarte, a senior Cuban Coast Guard official, said last month.

Although Castro critics have long charged that the government is in league 
with traffickers, the State Department report said there is no direct 
evidence to substantiate that.

That assessment stands in sharp contrast with some other Latin American and 
Caribbean nations, where drug trafficking has corrupted politicians and 
law-enforcement officials while spawning violent criminal organizations.

Specifically, the report said corruption was hampering efforts in Jamaica 
and Haiti. Political and financial problems also undermined anti-narcotics 
work in Haiti, the report added.
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