CU drug war
31 March 2002

South Florida Sun-Sentinel - HAVANA - Twenty minutes is all it takes for South American drug traffickers to fly over Cuba's northeastern coast, drop sealed bales of cocaine or marijuana among hundreds of secluded keys and escape Cuban airspace before they can be stopped. Armed with global positioning units and cellular phones, the traffickers' Bahamas-based partners then pick up the bales using dark painted speedboats with refitted cabins for greater storage. The drug traffickers' communication is smooth and sophisticated. Nothing like the limited, case-by-case cooperation between the U.S. and Cuban authorities tasked with stopping them. A few years ago U.S. Coast Guard officers who spotted suspicious vessels heading into Cuban waters radioed their headquarters in Miami who would then get State Department approval before relaying a telex message to Cuban authorities in Havana. Since Sept. 2000 a Coast Guard officer has been stationed in the U.S. Interests Section in Havana to help exchange tactical information between his colleagues and their Cuban counterparts. Officials at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, the State Department in Washington, or the Coast Guard in Miami refused requests to interview the officer or to release the number of drug seizures resulted from the minimal cooperation the two countries have. Still, many U.S. legislators and Cuban officials say greater cooperation is necessary if both countries are to become more effective in the war on drugs. Earlier this month, the Cuban Foreign Ministry offered the State Department a proposal for greater anti-narcotics cooperation. "The U.S. government now has the chance to show that it is really ready to undertake the fight against these grave scourges of humanity with seriousness and without double standards," an official statement read. State Department officials rejected the possibility of greater cooperation, saying Cuba's law enforcement has been lax in the past. "We have been looking for Cuba's cooperation across the board on law enforcement issues, and unless there's occasional case-by-case cooperation, I'm afraid we just haven't gotten it," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. Some call Cuba's proposal a "good will gesture" while others see it as a propaganda ploy to sway public opinion. Cuba is trying to curry favor with Congress, where momentum has been building to lift the 4-decade-old embargo. Cuba's proposal also came one day before a high-ranking Department of Defense analyst pleaded guilty to spying for Cuba. "Because drug cooperation involves intelligence sharing, the offer sounds like a Trojan horse to Washington," said Pamela Falk, an international law professor at City University of New York and expert on Cuba. "The United States and Cuba have mutual interests on drug trafficking cooperation, but the timing could not have been worse. It is not surprising that in an atmosphere of increased tension between Washington and Havana, the State Department rejected Cuba's offer of cooperation." The end of the Clinton administration brought limited improvements to communication between U.S. and Cuban coast guard officials, said Philip Peters, vice president of the Virginia-based Lexington Institute, who has written on U.S.-Cuba bilateral relations. Telex machines, for example were updated with fax lines. Some Cuban American legislators balked however, claiming Cuban officials are involved in drug trafficking and allowing Cuba to be used to funnel drugs to the United States. A 1999 State Department narcotics report said there was "no evidence" that Cuban officials were involved in the drug trade. While in office, former U.S. drug czar, Gen. Barry McCaffrey said only a small portion of the drugs entering the United States came through Cuba, but the island's location and burgeoning tourism industry made it vulnerable to more drug trade. Earlier this month McCaffrey, now a professor at West Point military academy, visited Havana and met for 12 hours with Fidel Castro and his brother Raul Castro, head of Cuba's armed forces. Once again he made a pitch for greater cooperation with Cuba calling it "an island of resistance to the drug threat." "They are very keen on cooperating in the fight against drugs," McCaffrey said in a Havana press conference. Some Cuba experts and American legislators agree there should be more collaboration before Cuba becomes a drug trafficking hub. "We have every interest in getting in there now when drugs are not a problem and trying to prevent trafficking," Peters said. "All our allies are concerned about [drug traffickers] using Cuba as a bridge to Europe and Canada." Cuba has signed cooperation agreements with 29 countries, including in Europe and South America. In March 2000 Britain signed a formal cooperation agreement with Cuba to assist in profiling passengers arriving into Havana and Varadero airports. Recently a British customs officer spent six weeks with Cuban officials helping develop search techniques. Britain has also partnered with the European Union to finance a Caribbean drug interdiction conference. The conference was held in Havana in December and another regional meeting is planned for this summer. Although Cuba is not seen as an imminent threat, British drug enforcement officials want to prevent the island from becoming a target if Jamaican drug rings are shut down. Since the early 1990s French officials have worked with Cuba to step up airport security and provide Labrador retrievers and cocker spaniels used for drug sniffing, Peters said. In 1997 Spain and Cuba created a commission to coordinate their drug fighting efforts. Rep. William Delahunt, D-Massachusetts, who has visited Cuba several times and belongs to a new congressional group interested in lifting the embargo, said greater cooperation is needed. "Isn't it time that we collaborated in a formal way with Cuba to reduce the flow of drugs coming into this country from Latin America?" he asked.