CUBA-POLITICS: Vesco Trial Revives Old Conflicts

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Aug 7 1996 (IPS) - The trial of fugitive American financier Robert Vesco in Cuba on charges of illegally trying to produce and market a new cancer drug has reopened old wounds between Havana and Washington.

Vesco fled the United States 25 years ago to avoid arrest on charges of bilking investors of 224 million dollars. He has lived in Cuba for 13 years along with about 100 other “fugitives from Justice”, according to U.S. government sources.

Apart from Vesco, who was arrested in Havana in May last year, the Cuban government, however, has never acknowledged harbouring U.S. citizens.

The 60-year-old Vesco fled the United States after his Swiss- based mutual investment fund operation collapsed. He also was accused in 1973 of an illegal contribution of 200,000 dollars to the Nixon reelection campaign. In 1989, a court in the state of Florida sought him for conspiracy linked to drug trafficking.

Despite his background, the Detroit-born financier was never extradited and lived comfortably in Cuba under the name Tom Adams until his arrest last year. Originally charged with collaborating with foreign intelligence services, he was found not guilty.

But Vesco’s trial of attempting to go behind the government’s back in producing drugs ended this week and he awaits sentencing, which could mean a 20-year prison term, confiscation of part of his assets, and fines totalling 974,000 dollars.

Inside the overheated Provincial Courthouse of City of Havana and in front of an audience of 70 people – including foreign correspondents – Vesco insisted that he was innocent of the charges of “harm to the national economy or state contracts, fraud, and illicit economic activity.”

“What motives could I possibly have in defrauding the country that saved my life?” asked the entrepreneur, who admitted that he had violated some laws, but always with the justification of trying “to break the U.S. economic blockade of the island.”

The trial ended after 10 days with with Vesco and his Cuban wife, Lidia Alfonso, being remanded in custody.

Vesco was accused attempting to produce and sell the pharmaceutical Trioxidal (TX) – an experimental US drug meant to fight cancer and other diseases which attack the immune system.

Prosecutor Eldelmira Pedris acknowledged that Vesco had proposed a study of the new medicine to Cuban health authorities, and that the Ministry of Public Health had approved the research.

Nevertheless, she said, Vesco attracted foreign investors for what he called “Project TX,” assuring them that he had official authorization and even gave them what were supposedly initial samples for the marketing of the product.

Vesco went as far as establishing commercial agreements and selling products that were still non-existent, for which he received considerable sums of money, which was subsequently used mostly for personal expenses, according to the case file.

According to the District Attorney’s office, Vesco assured his partners that the Cuban medical-pharmaceutical industry was producing TX, and created companies named Rutenol Chemicals and Carinada Investment as the supposed counterparts to Cuba in the project. But those companies were never registered in the country.

Other foreign businessmen have been implicated in the case, including a nephew of former United States president Richard Nixon and high-level officials of the Ministries of Public Health and Agriculture, who were called on as witnesses.

Couirt sources predicted the verdict and sentence would be announced in 15 days but they dismissed the possibility that Cuba would concede to Vesco’s extradition to the United States.

Vesco’s arrest in May 1995, only a few days after the signing of immigration agreements between Cuba and the United States, was originally interpreted in political circles as a gesture of good will from Havana towards the United States.

One year later, however, the situation has deteriorated. After the downing of two civilian airplanes by Cuban military planes, new tensions emerged between the two countries, which led to U.S. approval of the Helms-Burton law, which tightens the blockade on the island.