CASTRO PUTS HONOR OF PAN AM GAMES ON TRIAL IN UNUSUAL TWO-DAY HEARING

HAVANA (AP) -- President Fidel Castro put the honor of the Pan American
Games on trial Friday with hearings aimed at showing that Cuban athletes
were framed for drug use and unjustly forced to give back their gold medals.

"It was all a colossal lie, an infamous and shameful lie, a criminal
plundering of merits won through denial, tenacity, consecration and
sacrifice," the Cuban leader said during the first hearing, a three-hour
appearance on live television Thursday night.

Castro called for the unusual program, which included the presence of 14
foreign journalists and five Cuban journalists. No questions were allowed
until the completion of the second half of the program Friday night.

"More than a hearing, it will be a trial," Castro said earlier in the week.

There was no immediate reaction from Pan Am officials or from the
laboratory in Montreal, which conducted the urine tests that Castro claimed
were doctored to falsely show that Cuban athletes were using drugs.

On Thursday night, Castro, along with a leading sports official and a top
sports doctor, said that multiple urine tests of two Cuban weightlifters
conducted by Cuba and sent to three different laboratories in Europe all
tested negative for the anabolic steroid Nandrolone. The tests were
conducted four to five days after the athletes returned to Cuba from the
Pan Am Games, Castro said.

Steroids are injected into the body to increase strength and bulk and can
remain in a person's system for months.

Urine tests analyzed by a Canadian lab during the Pan Am Games at Winnipeg
last month showed William Vargas, winner of the 136-pound class, and
Rolando Delgado, the 152-pound gold medalist, tested positive for the drug.
Both weightlifters were stripped of their gold medals.

"In the 20 samples analyzed by three laboratories, there was not a single
reported presence of Nandrolone or its traces, not a single athlete in our
weightlifting team was using drugs," Castro said.

Castro also defended high jump world record-holder Javier Sotomayor, saying
that his being stripped of the gold at the Pan Am Games after testing
positive for cocaine use was the result of a "dirty political war."

He raised doubts about the way the urine tests for Sotomayor and other
Cubans were conducted at the Games. The Cubans were required to drink water
or other "refreshing drinks" before their tests and were given their tests
in a room apart from athletes from other countries, Castro said.

Cuban officials have suggested that someone slipped the cocaine into
Sotomayor's food or drink before the test, which was given shortly after he
won his fourth straight Pan Am gold medal.

It would be "absurd" to believe that Sotomayor consumed cocaine before that
feat, because the large quantity found in his system would surely have
impeded his performance, Castro said.

Cuban officials have become increasingly frustrated by what they believe is
an orchestrated campaign by their enemies to discredit the communist
country and its long respected sports program.

During the Pan Am Games, they complained about Canadian news media, saying
they joked about and encouraged Cuban athletes to defect.

Last week in Houston, Cuban athletes and sports officials walked out on the
International Amateur Boxing Association Championships following a disputed
bout that initially gave a Russian fighter a victory over a Cuban.

Four of the five judges who worked the disputed match were suspended Aug.
27 by the executive committee of the AIBA.