CASTRO'S BROTHER MAY FACE U.S. DRUG CHARGES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 14, 1993                   TAG: 9304140174
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Newsday
DATELINE: MIAMI                                LENGTH: Medium
CASTRO'S BROTHER MAY FACE U.S. DRUG CHARGES
The U.S. attorney's office in southern Florida, fresh from its successful prosecution of former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega last year, is poised to indict Cuban Defense Minister Raul Castro and 14 other Cubans on federal drug conspiracy charges, according to informed sources.
The possible indictment is the result of months of grand jury testimony in Miami from witnesses who include imprisoned Colombian drug dealer Carlos Lehder, a key witness in the drug-conspiracy trial of Noriega last year.
Other witnesses include an array of Cuban defectors and imprisoned drug dealers who said they used Cuba as a stop-off point in delivering cocaine to the United States.
Key sources familiar with the case say word of the possible indictment of Castro, 61, has caught the Clinton administration by surprise, even though Attorney General Janet Reno served in Miami for 15 years as state attorney for Dade County. Indictment in a case of this sensitivity normally would be subject to approval by both the attorney general and the president.
Castro often is cited as his brother Fidel's closest confidant and likely successor to the 66-year-old leader should he ever step down from power. Cuban officials consistently have denied and rejected U.S. allegations of officially sanctioned drug dealing as propaganda without foundation.
Indeed, seven Cuban Interior Ministry officials named in the U.S. indictment, according to a list published by the Miami Herald, were convicted in 1989 drug trials conducted by the Castro government. Three were executed; the others received long prison sentences.
Sources close to the case say that U.S. and international law block any consideration of charging the Cuban leader himself because of his status as a head of state.
"They would be prohibited from doing so by laws that give a head of state immunity," said a government source familiar with the pending Cuban indictment.
Unlike the case of Noriega, nominally the armed forces chief and never formally considered the head of state of Panama, Fidel Castro has been recognized as Cuba's leader by the U.S. government. "Once a state does that, then you cannot charge him for acts that are done in the course of his duties," the source said.
As a lower-ranking official, Raul Castro has no such immunity and could be charged under conspiracy statutes for a crime directed toward the United States but planned outside the country.
He is hardly likely to be given up by his brother's government. Castro would have to be extradited from a third country or seized, as Noriega was during a U.S. invasion, or kidnapped, as Lehder was in a clandestine operation.
Justice Department officials in Washington said they would have no comment on the Cuban indictment. "We aren't saying anything at all about that," a spokesman said.
State Department spokesman Douglas Gray likewise declined comment.
One well-placed source said that Reno "wouldn't have necessarily known the workings of the grand jury or the indictment while she was in Miami, but I'm sure she knows now. . . . I'm sure [U.S. Attorney Robert] Martinez has gotten her up to speed," the source said.
Congressional sources said there is concern that the indictment could backfire against the Clinton administration, which has yet to define a policy toward Cuba.
A strong, mostly conservative lobby in Miami favors increased sanctions against the Castro regime, but some foreign policy specialists argue that Fidel Castro's support at home would be weakened more effectively if Cuba's economic and cultural ties with the United States were strengthened. An indictment, they say, could rally support in favor of Castro and fuel anti-American sentiment.
Word that a grand jury was preparing indictments, however, percolated in Miami before the November presidential elections.
The U.S. attorney's office there hoped that the Bush administration would see an indictment of the Castro regime as helpful toward the president's re-election, sources close to the office said.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB