REPUBLICANS WANT CUBA BLACKLISTED FOR DRUGS

WASHINGTON - Republican lawmakers accused the Clinton
administration on Wednesday of turning a blind eye to drug trafficking
in Cuba while seeking to restore relations with the communist-run island.

But State Department, drug enforcement and military officials told
them there was simply no evidence that Cuban leader Fidel Castro's
government was involved in the narcotics trade.

In fact, overflights of Cuban airspace by smugglers of Colombian
cocaine and Jamaican marijuana have fallen this year, with the traffic
shifting to Haiti, they said.

Republicans were up in arms at a White House decision last week not to
include Cuba in its list of major drug-producing and trafficking
nations that need special monitoring.

The list of 26 countries included Mexico, the route for 60 percent of
the narcotics entering the United States, according to the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration.

Republican Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana told a drug policy subcommittee
hearing that Cuba had turned to drug trafficking to prop up its
sagging economy after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

46lorida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said drug smugglers
could not use Cuban airspace or waters without Castro's knowledge.

She said the White House was overlooking Cuban involvement because it
wants to lift the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba to please U.S.
pharmaceutical and agricultural business lobbies.

``We are unaware of significant quantities of drugs transiting Cuba's
landmass,'' said Assistant Secretary of State for International
Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Rand Beers.

Drugs that do go to Cuba appear to be destined for a growing local and
tourist market, Beers said.

Cocaine Shipment Seized In 1998

A cargo of 7.2 tons of cocaine seized in the false walls of a ship
container in the Colombia port of Cartagena in December 1998 was to be
routed through Jamaica and Havana, but the final destination was Spain
and not the United States, he said.

The DEA's chief of international operations, William Ledwith, told the
hearing his agency had ``no evidence indicating that high-ranking
officials in the Cuban government were complicit in this shipment'' by
a Spanish firm.

``The drugs were well enough concealed that Cuban officials might not
have ever become aware of their presence, had the shipment not been
seized in Cartagena,'' Ledwith said.

U.S. officials say smugglers use Cuban airspace to drop drugs in
coastal waters for pick-up by speedboats that carry the bales to the
Bahamas for entry into the United States.

But suspected drug flights over Cuba have dropped to 10 this year from
39 in 1998, said Rear Adm. Edward Barrett, head of the U.S. Southern
Command's drug operation in Key West, Florida.

Barrett said effective U.S. interception of drug planes and boats
north of Cuba had resulted in smugglers moving their routes to Haiti,
as shown by radar tracking of suspected flights.

The Navy has also seen an increase in speedboat traffic from Colombia
to Jamaica and Haiti this year, the admiral said. The boats use the
windward passage between Cuba and Haiti to deliver drugs to the
Bahamas and southeast United States, he said.

Beers said Cuban authorities have cooperated with the U.S. Coast Guard
this year exchanging intelligence by telex on suspects planes and vessels.

Cuba has responded favorably to U.S. proposals to upgrade the telex
link to a telephone hotline and add radio frequencies for use during
``coincidental'' operations, Beers said.

The U.S. government plans to post a Coast Guard official in Havana to
enhance cooperation with Cuba, he said.