CASTRO 'DRUG LINK' UNSETTLES FRANCE

A French investigating judge must decide this week whether to start formal
proceedings against the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, for drug dealing and
crimes against humanity.

The case - brought by two Cuban exiles and a French photographer in the wake
of the Pinochet affair - has already caused considerable embarrassment to
the French government. The Justice Ministry has made clear it wants nothing
to do with the allegations, because President Castro is regarded as a
"friend of France".

None the less, substantial prima facie evidence of the involvement of the
Cuban regime in cocaine trafficking - including smuggling through the port
of Marseilles - has been presented to the examining magistrate in charge of
the case.

Judge Herve Stephan, who is also in charge of the inquiry into the death of
Diana, Princess of Wales, must decide before the end of this week whether to
launch a formal investigation. It is thought unlikely that Judge Stephan
will pursue the allegations of crimes against humanity, despite new evidence
that Ilich Ramirez Sanchez (Carlos the Jackal) had connections with the
Cuban security services at the time of the triple murder he committed in
Paris in 1975. Carlos is serving a life sentence in a French jail for these
murders.

However, leaks to the French press suggest that Judge Stephan has been
taking the possible drugs charge extremely seriously. He has received a
video cassette from the United States containing sworn testimony by the
former head of the Cuban air traffic control service, as well as a former
district attorney in Florida and a former senior US drugs agent.

A former senior official in the Cuban interior ministry, in exile in the US,
Antonio Rodriguez Menier, has also written two letters to the judge, in
which he alleges that Havana - with the full knowledge of the "maximum
leader" - generated funds by assisting cocaine trafficking into Florida in
the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Mr Rodriguez Menier also alleges that the Cuban authorities were involved in
a cocaine smuggling route through Marseilles in 1979.

This allegation, if taken seriously by Judge Stephan, would give him ample
jurisdiction to place President Castro "en examen", the investigative stage
of judicial procedure, which is a step short of a formal charge. The public
prosecutor has already announced, under government pressure, that he will
not be pursuing the allegations against President Castro. But examining
magistrates have substantial independent powers to pursue cases once they
are entrusted to them.

The complaints were brought by a French photographer, Pierre Golendorf, the
exiled Cuban painter, Lazaro Jordana, and by Ileana de la Guardia, the
daughter of General Antonio de la Guardia, who was convicted of drug
trafficking by the Cuban authorities in 1989 and executed. The trio were
inspired by the "success" of the Spanish investigation of the former Chilean
dictator, Augusto Pinochet, and especially by General Pinochet's arrest in
London pending

possible extradition to Spain.

The first two complainants wanted the French authorities to try President
Castro for crimes against humanity, both for his repression of dissent
inside Cuba and his alleged support of terrorist activities in other
countries, including France. Ms de la Guardia brought the separate
allegations of drugs trafficking, which seem more likely to succeed.

The affair is an embarrassment to the authorities, which have always
maintained friendly relations with Cuba. Danielle Mitterrand, wife of the
late president, Francois Mitterrand, is a personal friend of the Cuban
leader and remains influential, both with the Gaullist President, Jacques
Chirac, and the Socialist Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin.