AUTHORITIES CLAIM PROGRESS IN WAR ON DRUGS DESPITE STATISTICS

BOGOTA, Colombia -- A U.S. delegation on a three-day mission here traveled
to rebel territory Thursday for a peek at U.S.-funded operations in a war
on drugs that authorities claim to be winning even as statistics suggest an
ever-growing problem.

The high-level group of U.S. officials toured the southern region of the
country, where U.S. Special Forces have trained Colombian army units in
combating the drug trade and where aerial drug eradication operations are
based. Much of the $1.3 billion in U.S. aid to Colombia is to support the
anti-drug effort.

According to Colombian authorities, more than 278,000 acres of fields where
narcotic-producing plants are grown and 411 laboratories have been
destroyed. Yet, statistics from the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy show that more drugs are being seized in the United States,
drug consumption remains high and Colombia continues to be the largest
supplier of cocaine and heroine.