COLOMBIA UPSET BY BILL PARDON

BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombians were outraged yesterday by former President
Bill Clinton's decision to commute the sentence of an American lawyer
convicted of laundering Colombian drug money.

Colombians learned of the commuted sentence for Harvey Weinig from local
news reports this weekend, as President Bush and President Andres Pastrana
were preparing to meet today in the White House to discuss the U.S.-backed
drug war in this South American country.

Weinig was sentenced in 1996 to 11 years in prison for laundering tens of
millions in Cali cartel drug money and failing to report a kidnapping.

Clinton commuted Weinig's sentence to just over three years, U.S. officials
said. He is scheduled to be released on April 16.

Colombians - who have endured a bloody drug war and seen some of the
country's drug kingpins be extradited to the United States for long prison
sentences - say their country is making all the sacrifices while
drug-consuming nations don't do enough.

Gustavo de Greiff, who was prosecutor general when the Colombian government
fought a bloody war against the Medellin cocaine cartel, said Colombia
should reconsider its policies in light of Clinton's action.

De Greiff was accused by Washington of "coddling" drug traffickers because
he plea bargained with those who surrendered and turned in cohorts.

"This now all seems incredible to me," de Greiff said on national radio.
"What President Clinton has done, they criticized us for. And we offered
sentence reductions to those who had not been captured yet, while the United
States offers this to people who have already been caught."