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.