"When you come and testify before our committee and you tell us this stuff, it just drives me up the wall," said Burton, R-Ind. He speculated that the administration's position is based on a desire of President Clinton to establish normal relations with President Fidel Castro. Administration officials insist Clinton has no such intention.
Burton, who has been one of Clinton's chief tormentors on Capitol Hill, said the evidence is overwhelming of Cuban government complicity in drug shipments from South America to the United States.
He cited information that Castro once had a friendship with Jorge Cabrera, a Cuban-American drug trafficker who admitted after his arrest by U.S. authorities that he sent "freighter-loads" of cocaine to the United States, using Cuba as a transit point.
Burton also cited the case of a 7.2 ton-cocaine seizure by Colombian authorities from a vessel in the port city of Cartagena in December 1998. He said a months-long investigation by House Republican staff members demonstrated convincingly that the Cuban government was involved.
"For this government and this president to say this (Cuba) is not a major transshipment point for drugs is just unbelievable," he said, glaring at a lineup of administration witnesses from the State Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and an interagency task force responsible for monitoring drug trafficking.
Clinton infuriated Burton and other outspoken critics of Castro on Capitol Hill last week when he excluded Cuba from the official list of countries regarded as "major" drug-producing or drug-transit countries. The list, updated each November, included 26 countries and territories. Cuba was described as a country of "drug-trafficking concern."
Rear Adm. Edward J. Barrett, who directs an interagency drug monitoring operation in Key West, Fla., testified that there is "little indication to suggest that cocaine traffickers use Cuba as a transshipment point for markets in the United States.
"Almost all cocaine headed for this market bypasses Cuba via other routes, typically Mexico, Central America, Haiti and Puerto Rico," he said.
Randy Beers, the State Department's top law enforcement official, disputed Burton's contention that the cocaine seizure in Colombia 11 months ago should have been enough evidence to earn Cuba a designation as a major trafficker.
Beers said an "all-source interagency assessment" indicated that the cocaine shipment was earmarked for Spain and not the United States. A country is labeled as a major trafficker only if drug flows have a significant effect on the United States.
Beers added that information exchanges between U.S. and Cuban authorities resulted in significant marijuana seizures by Cuban Border Guard agents on two occasions earlier this year.
The two Cuban-born members of the House, Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, both Florida Republicans, joined with Burton in accusing Castro of involvement in drug trafficking.
Ros-Lehtinen said it was naive to suggest that Castro is oblivious to drug trafficking though Cuba. "He not only knows, he's part of this illegal operation."
Diaz-Balart said in a statement, "Congress is not being told the truth about Castro's involvement in drug trafficking."
© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press