CUBA URGES COOPERATION ON DRUG INTERDICTION

The Cuban government yesterday announced the arrest of a convicted
Colombian drug trafficker wanted by the U.S. Marshals Service and publicly
called on the Bush administration to negotiate agreements to fight drugs
and terrorism.

Rafael Miguel Bustamante Bolanos, who escaped from an Alabama prison in
1992, was arrested in Havana on March 6 after the marshals service relayed
news that he was in Cuba. The Cubans charged him and a Bahamian citizen
with drug trafficking and document forgery, the Cuban foreign ministry
reported.

Bustamante is the third fugitive from the United States to be arrested by
Cuba in recent months. The first two, Washington drug defendant Jesse James
Bell and alleged Georgia child molester William Joseph Harris, have been
extradited to the United States, according to U.S. officials.

State Department officials greeted Cuba's offer with skepticism. They said
the deep divide in U.S.-Cuban relations will preclude any broad agreement
until the government headed by Fidel Castro improves its record on such
issues as democracy and human rights.

"We're not going to be entering into any sort of umbrella agreement on
anti-narcotics or anti-drug trafficking with the Cubans," a State
Department official said. The official said contacts on law enforcement and
human smuggling will continue case by case: "It's going to be looked at
individually."

Cuban government officials in Washington and Havana met with U.S. diplomats
last week to renew a 2001 request for bilateral agreements on drug
trafficking, terrorism and migration.

The move seemed designed to appeal to members of Congress, including Sen.
Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who say the Bush administration should work more
closely with Cuba on narcotics matters.

"If we can stop the flow of drugs with Castro's assistance, we ought to
take him up on that offer," Specter said earlier this year.