ECUADOR - THE NEWEST FRONT-LINE STATE

For the sixth time in 15 months, Ecuador's foreign minister has come to
Washington to ask for additional U.S. aid as his nation confronts a
drug-influenced civil war in its unstable neighbor, Colombia. But when
Heinz Moeller left town in late June, it remained unclear if Ecuador
would get the help he says it needs to cope with the stepped up war
against Colombian drug producers on his country's northern border.

The money, Ecuador maintains, is needed to help insulate it from the
violence, refugees, and other spillover effects of the U.S.-backed
military push to eradicate coca crops in the drug-producing region of
southern Colombia. The United States contributed about $1.3 billion last
year to Plan Colombia, an internationally financed, multiyear $7.5
billion program conceived in 1999 with the aim of promoting the peace
process, fighting drugs, and strengthening democratic institutions in
Colombia. But this year, the Bush Administration and Congress are
considering a broader regional approach that would spread more aid
around to other countries-but not to the extent that Ecuador believes it
deserves.

Moeller is asking for a $500 million program over the next five years to
increase security along the border with Colombia and to promote economic
and social development in the region.

He would like the United States to contribute $40 million each year,
with Ecuador contributing $20 million and Europe and Japan making up the
rest-an ambitious goal that may be wishful thinking in light of the
budget constraints here following the tax cut and international concerns
about increased U.S. military aid to the region.

Ecuador has agreed to allow the United States to develop what could
become the Pentagon's most important air base in Latin America, at
Manta, a city on the Ecuadoran coast.

The base will be home to U.S. surveillance operations over the
drug-producing countries in the entire Andean region.

Gen. Charles Wilhelm, former commander in chief of the U.S. Southern
Command, told Congress in February that the Manta air base in Ecuador is
"crucial" to achieving "full [air] coverage of Peru and Colombia and
nearly all of Bolivia."

Speaking at the National Press Club in June, Moeller cited the Manta
base as proof that Ecuador stands with America in the war against drugs.
"Who can ask Ecuador, `What is your position in the fight against
drugs?' " asked Moeller. "We signed an agreement by which we facilitate
an air base in Manta.... We think it is a strong message to the drug
lords in the north that we don't want them in Ecuador."

Ecuadoran diplomats say their country may pay a high price for becoming
more deeply allied with the U.S.-backed campaign against drug producers.
These officials cite increasing incidents of violence spilling over the
border from Colombia, and they fear an influx of refugees as the drug
war escalates pressure on coca producers in Colombia.

Former senior officials in the U.S. drug war describe Ecuador as an
oasis in the middle of two drug-producing countries-Colombia and Peru.
Ecuador borders the Putumayo region of southern Colombia that is the
most densely cultivated area in the world for coca, the plant used to
produce cocaine.

The region, made up of flat jungle plains, is also largely controlled by
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the largest of
Colombia's two guerrilla forces who together control large sections of
the interior of the country.

Recent reports describe the left-wing FARC battling with Colombia's
right-wing paramilitary group for control of Putumayo's drug business.

Putumayo is the focus of the first phase of Plan Colombia. Last year,
Congress approved $1.3 billion in emergency spending for the plan over
two years.

The money was mostly for military assistance, including 14 UH-60
Blackhawk and 30 Huey II helicopters for Colombia's military and
national police.

After criticism both in the United States and abroad that last year's
package was too focused on the military and too heavily weighted toward
Colombia alone, the Bush Administration has proposed its own $882
million Andean Regional Initiative. The plan spreads more money among
Colombia's neighbors and increases aid for economic and social
development. Ecuador, which received $20 million in last year's aid
package, would receive $76.5 million under the Bush plan, about $30
million of which would go to the Manta air base, according to Ecuadoran
Embassy officials.

Last year's package included $61.3 million for Manta improvements. A
major runway project at Manta is scheduled to be completed this fall.

Ecuador appreciates the expanded aid but insists it requires even more
help. Bush Administration officials say their plan does address the
worries of Colombia's neighbors. "The level of funding proposed by the
Bush Administration for the Andean Regional Initiative is proof that the
U.S. government has listened to the concerns of the people of Ecuador,"
U.S. Ambassador to Ecuador Gwen C. Clare wrote in a May op-ed piece in
an Ecuadoran newspaper, El Comercio.

Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., is among the 18 members of Congress who have
traveled to Ecuador this year. "I think the problem in Ecuador is a
serious one," Kolbe said in an interview, and he "strongly agrees" with
the Bush Administration's regional approach.

On June 28, Kolbe's House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign
operations approved $676 million for the Andean Regional Initiative as
part of the markup of the fiscal 2002 foreign operations spending bill.
That's $55 million less than the Administration had requested for that
bill. The initiative will also be funded from other appropriations
bills.

Kolbe's markup did not specify how much money each country would
receive, leaving that decision to the Administration.

Winning money for the initiative in the Senate is also going to be an
uphill battle. "I do think Ecuador makes a good case," said Sen.
Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. "I'm sure there would be no
difficulty in finding ways to properly spend $40 million, but I'm not
convinced that there are enough colleagues here, nor is there enough in
the budget ... to be able to do as much as Ecuador would like. But we're
going to do our best to be helpful to them."

During his recent visit to Washington, Moeller met with Deputy Secretary
of State Richard Armitage and Vice President Dick Cheney. Moeller said
that Armitage was "very open" to the United States chipping in "half of
what we need."

To bolster its case, Ecuador is reminding Washington officials of a
growing list of security problems.

Chief among them is the October 2000 kidnapping, by Colombians, of 10
foreign oil workers, including five Americans, from the oil-producing
northeastern part of Ecuador. The hostages, except for Ronald Sander of
Missouri, who was killed, were released six months later after a $12
million ransom was paid. Colombian authorities have arrested
several Colombians in connection with that kidnapping. Five of them have
been indicted in the United States. In early June, along the
Pan-American Highway, Ecuadoran police got into a shoot-out with 30
members of the National Liberation Army, Colombia's other major
guerrilla group, known as the ELN, who had set up a barricade on the
highway in an attempt to rob an armored car.

The State Department plays down the spillover effects of Plan Colombia.
A statement issued in May notes that FARC and ELN have crossed the
border for rest and relaxation for years and have periodically engaged
in kidnapping, extortion, and illegal drugs and arms trafficking in
neighboring countries, including Ecuador. U.S. officials also say that
Plan Colombia itself will not result in the flight of a significant
number of refugees, but should the conflict in Colombia intensify, more
refugees could flee. Some experts now estimate that between 10,000 and
20,000 Colombians are living in Ecuador.

Opinion differs on whether Ecuador itself will become a cocaine
producer. Earlier this month, an official from the White House Office of
National Drug Control Policy told the Ecuador newspaper Hoy that drug
traffickers would most likely stay in Colombia because they have more
room to maneuver there.

A June 20 State Department briefing paper on Ecuador states that
large-scale coca production has not spilled over the border from
Colombia, but scattered plantations of coca can be found in northern
Ecuador. "Ecuador could become a drug producer, in addition to its
current role as a major drug transit country, unless law enforcement
programs are strengthened," the document states.

"This is the business down there, and everyone wants to grow coca," said
a former senior U.S. official, adding that between 3,000 and 4,000
Ecuadorans cross the border every day to work in the coca fields in
Colombia, and there is "enormous corruption in the Ecuadoran police and
border patrol."

All of this complicates the problems of a country that is itself
unstable. Ecuador has had four presidents in the past five years. "The
political system is in absolute crisis," said Eduardo Gamarra, director
of the Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International
University in Miami. "Its institutions have virtually collapsed."

About 70 percent of the population in Ecuador lives below the poverty
line, more than double the rate five years ago, according to the State
Department. And as Gamarra notes: "These problems have nothing to do
with the crisis in Colombia.... Should Plan Colombia be blamed for the
political crisis in Ecuador? No."

Still, some members of Congress and former officials say the country has
legitimate border concerns and needs aid, especially for policing the
region. Ecuador is arguing that if they don't get that aid now, the
situation will only worsen.

Moeller warned at his recent press conference: "What I don't want to
have to do is come back to Washington and say, `I told you so.'"