CUBA: Nascent Drug Trade Has Officials Worried, But Talking

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Jan 16 2003 (IPS) - There is a budding market for the distribution and consumption of narcotics in Cuba, and it will grow if immediate steps are not taken, the state-run media are saying, marking an unusual precedent for the Fidel Castro government on this sensitive issue.

Drug consumption is considered a health problem on this socialist-ruled island, and is not categorised a crime in the penal code. But anyone caught bringing illicit drugs into the country and selling them is severely punished.

‘Granma’ newspaper, voice of the ruling Communist Party, said there are "growing indices" of illegal drug use, although such consumption is still limited in comparison to the levels reported in other countries.

"There will be impunity for no one," stated an editorial in the Cuban daily, underscoring the cases of foreign traffickers who attempt to use Cuba not only as a point of transit for illicit drugs, but also seek to deal on the domestic market, in partnership "with local elements".

From 1995 to November 2002, 252 foreigners were arrested on drug trafficking charges, 146 of whom are serving prison sentences or awaiting trial. The editorial, published last week, did not include the number of Cubans imprisoned for these same crimes.

Commentaries about drug addiction in some sectors of Cuban society, which date back to the early 1990s, have gathered strength recently as a result of news reports published in the government-run press.

"When I began to work in the trade I had already been smoking marijuana regularly for four or five years. One day I was with my girlfriend in a cabaret and I remember she said, ‘try this’ (cocaine)," a former addict told ‘Juventud Rebelde’ newspaper.

‘Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas’ magazine published a story in August titled "I lived in hell", a dramatic testimony of a young man known as "L" and who nearly died from a crack cocaine overdose.

"Drugs have been on the streets here for a while, and everyone knows it. Even if the newspapers don’t say it," a computer engineer who said he works in tourism, told IPS.

Attorney general, Juan Escalona, acknowledged in early December that the island has historically been used by drug traffickers as a transit point, and that lately there have been reports that "the drugs are not moving on, but traffickers are attempting to keep them here."

"We are ready to confront trafficking with a heavy hand," said Escalona, who was the prosecutor in the 1989 case against Cuban army general Arnaldo Ochoa and others accused of drug trafficking and corruption.

Ochoa, Antonio de la Guardia, Jorge Martínez Valdés and Amado Padrón Trujillo were sentenced to death by firing squad, and were killed Jul 13, 1989.

Escalona also admitted that recently the synthetic drug ecstasy had been found smuggled into Cuba and that small plantations of marijuana were destroyed by local police authorities.

Two cases of multiple crimes committed in late 2001, one being the assassination of a Cuban family residing in the United States, coincide with the increased presence of illegal drugs on this Caribbean island, according to unofficial sources.

‘Granma’ reported that the Cuban authorities had seized 4.5 tons of unspecified drugs, coming from abroad, in the first 10 months of 2002.

Cuba is propitiously located on the route between the leading drug producing countries, such as Colombia, and the world’s leading drug consuming country, the United States.

Traffickers drop their drug shipments from aircraft into the sea, where their colleagues pick them up, using speedboats travelling from the U.S. coast of Florida, just 170 km from Cuba.

But many of the shipments picked up off the Cuban coast are destined for the local market, which, says the ‘Granma’ editorial, is stimulated by "vulgar international and foreign criminals."

"In response to this adverse phenomenon, the stance of the Revolution is categorical: it will not allow anyone to attack the security, health, ethics, dignity and values that we have created to confront these dangers. There will be impunity for no one," said the official statement.

An estimated 40 percent of the drugs entering the United States are transported across the Caribbean Sea, and some 65 percent of the cocaine reaching Europe also passes through this region.

Cuba’s National Drug Commission launched a wide-reaching programme two years ago to prevent consumption of illicit drugs. The effort includes training for workers in the education, health and tourism sectors, as well as for leaders of social organisations.

The Interior Ministry, meanwhile, has trained thousands of its agents and customs personnel in the latest techniques for preventing the entry of narcotics into the country via airports or seaports.

Many of Cuba’s customs police have participated in courses provided by anti-drugs experts from Britain, Canada, France and Spain.

In the health arena, seven hospitals in Havana are set up to provide medical treatment for people suffering "acute intoxication from alcohol, or ingestion or overdose of drugs."