SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL AND COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA TO
RETHINK ANTI-DRUG PLAN AMID PERCEPTION THAT IT HAS BEEN 'A CATASTROPHE'

NEW YORK Disturbed by the failings of the controversial plan he inherited
to fight drugs and guerrillas in Colombia, Secretary of State Colin Powell
is on his way this week to meet with Colombian President Andres Pastrana
for a "frank" discussion about "what has worked and what hasn't," according
to a State Department official.

Many U.S. officials told Newsweek Investigative Correspondent Michael
Isikoff that they fear that Plan Colombia has had little success. "What's
happening down there is a catastrophe," one congressional staffer says in
the September 17 issue (on newsstands Monday, September 10).

Plan Colombia was approved by Congress as an "emergency" response over a
year ago, after being vigorously pushed by then-President Clinton and his
hard line drug czar Barry McCaffrey. George W. Bush signed off on the $1.3
billion program in his first few weeks in office and even asked for an
additional $880 million for an "Andean regional initiative" to expand key
elements to neighboring countries.

But since then, Isikoff reports, the situation on the ground has gone from
bad to worse. Leftist guerrillas control large swaths of countryside, peace
talks with the Colombia government have all but collapsed and drug
production continues to soar.

The architects of Plan Colombia envisioned, among other things, a dramatic
increase in aerial fumigation flights, dosing large segments of the
country's agricultural regions with chemical herbicide, but public
opposition to crop eradication has been growing. The anti-fumigation
campaign is picking up support from Colombian provincial governors and
environmental groups, the country's comptroller general called for
immediate suspension of spraying, and even Pastrana may be having doubts,
telling reporters last week that a new "evaluation" of the fumigation
program was needed.

Officially, State Department officials remain bullish, citing the success
of a U.S. supported Colombian Army-backed offensive in the
guerrilla-controlled Putumayo region on the Ecuadorian border that they
claim eliminated 25,000 hectares of coca growth. "It's sort of like
establishing a beachhead in an amphibious operation," says one U.S.
official. "We've secured the beach -- and the first reports from the field
are promising."