CUBAN GOVERNMENT TO 'DEFEND TO THE END' HIGH-JUMPER'S HONOR

HAVANA -- Cuba pledged Friday to defend the honor of high jumper Javier
Sotomayor, charging that the positive drug tests that cost him his Pan Am
gold medal were part of a larger campaign to discredit the Communist
government -- possibly by the CIA or Miami exiles.

The Cuban government "will defend to the end the integrity and honor of
Sotomayor and any other honest athlete like him," the Communist Party daily
Granma declared in an extensive front-page story.

Sotomayor denies knowingly ingesting the cocaine that showed up on drug
tests during the Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Both he and Cuban
authorities have suggested that his food or drink may have been laced with
the drug.

"We absolutely trust the word of Javier Sotomayor because he has won the
right to be believed" more than the laboratory that did the test, and more
than the facilities at the games where "the hands of the CIA or the
anti-Cuban mafia could introduce a dose of a prohibited substance in any
food or liquid," the article said.

"This could come, surely it comes, from farther away, as part of the
strategy that has been going on for decades to harm and discredit the Cuban
Revolution."

Pan Am medical officials have said they are only concerned with the positive
drug test, not how the drug got into Sotomayor's urine.

The Sotomayor case is the biggest drug scandal in track and field since
Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was suspended and stripped of his gold medal
after testing positive for an anabolic steroid at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

So far, Sotomayor has talked only to Cuba's government-controlled news media.

Sotomayor declared his innocence in interviews published and broadcast
Thursday by those media, saying he had never seen cocaine in his life and
that he didn't even take vitamins.

Sotomayor, the world indoor and outdoor record holder and the only high
jumper to clear 8 feet, won his fourth Pan Am gold in the high jump July 30.

After the drug test results, he was stripped of the medal and suspended for
two years, making him ineligible for this month's World Track and Field
Championships and next year's Olympic Games.

Cuba is expected to appeal the ruling.

The newspaper article Friday suggested Cuba would strongly defend one of its
greatest athletes.

"The mud of Winnipeg will never make us dirty," the article said. "Cuban
sports and the revolution will be strengthened by this shadowy episode of
Winnipeg."

Eight Cubans have left the delegation, including one journalist, with
sources close to the team saying at least seven plan to defect during the
18-day games that end Sunday.

"The aggression against Sotomayor is an important link in the chain against
Cuba and its sports that began with the start of the games," Granma said.

Recreational drug use remains rare in Cuba, and is frowned upon by Castro's
government, which considers it a harmful byproduct of capitalism. But drug
use has grown in recent years with an increase of tourism to the island.