BORDERING ON CHAOS

Colombia's Drug-fueled Civil War Is Infecting The Region

Colombia's civil war has turned personal for Otto Ramirez. The Venezuelan
rancher, 57, never wanted any part of the armed conflict that has killed
35,000 Colombians over the past decade. Even so, he finally saw no choice
but to fight-or give up his farm at the foot of the Andes, 100 kilometers
from the Colombian border.

THE TROUBLE BEGAN last year when a Colombian guerrilla commander made the
rounds of the local ranches, collecting thousands of dollars in protection
money.

That didn't keep another local rancher, 25-year-old Hermir Garcia, from
being kidnapped a few months later; he has not been seen since.

Meanwhile, Ramirez complains, Venezuela has drastically cut its security
forces along the frontier. "The rural police we used to rely on have been
withdrawn, and military checkpoints disappear from the border area every
day," he says. A month ago Ramirez and his desperate neighbors declared
their own war, forming a clandestine militia to drive the rebels out.

The risk has never been higher that Colombia's anarchy could touch off a
regional conflict.

Violence and the threat of violence are spreading all along the nation's
perimeter, not only into rural Venezuela but also into Brazil, Peru,
Ecuador and Panama. Much of the driving force seems to be the massive
anti-drug military offensive campaign known as Plan Colombia. The crackdown
has sent growers and refugees spilling out across the borders, along with
growing numbers of leftist Colombian guerrillas and the right-wing private
armies that have sworn to eradicate them. Ecuador's president, Gustavo
Noboa, summed it up last week: "Our northern border was traditionally
peaceful, without conflict, until decomposition and delinquency settled in
southern Colombia and started spreading their poison."

Now it's spewing out in all directions. In Ecuador, where more than 2,000
Colombian civilians have already sought refuge from the Plan Colombia
cross-fire, turf battles are multiplying between Colombia's rebels and
their paramilitary foes, fighting for control of the drug traffic that
funds both sides.

Two weeks ago a local politician, his 13-year-old daughter and six other
Ecuadorans were kidnapped by unidentified Colombians. Their mutilated
bodies were found a few days later on the Colombian side of the border.

In Peru, coca production is booming in expectation of shortages in
Colombia. In Panama, death threats forced a Roman Catholic bishop to flee
into exile last year after he publicly denounced incursions by both the
rebels and their right-wing adversaries. And in Brazil, security forces
have stepped up their border patrols, trying to keep the combatants off
their soil. Nevertheless, a delegate from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC), the country's largest rebel group, made no secret of his
presence a month ago at the "anti-Davos" countersummit in Porto Alegre.

The contagion is even worse in Venezuela. Soon after taking office as
president two years ago, Fidel Castro's good friend Hugo Chavez proclaimed
the country's official neutrality in the Colombian conflict. What's more,
he gave quasi-diplomatic status to the Caracas representatives of FARC and
its partner in revolution, the National Liberation Army (ELN). Many border
inhabitants, Ramirez among them, accuse Venezuela's leaders of giving even
more ground-literally. The critics claim the rebels have cut a secret
ceasefire deal with the Chavez government for a safe haven inside
Venezuela. Ramirez says the guerrillas bragged about it when they came to
his ranch demanding a protection payment. "One of the first things they
told me was, 'We have an agreement with Chavez not to attack the Venezuelan
armed forces. But we are allowed to extort money'."

Chavez and his aides indignantly deny the existence of any such deal.
"There is no agreement, written or tacit, with the Colombian guerrillas,"
insists Jose Vicente Rangel, Venezuela's newly installed Defense minister.

Chavez himself has scoffed at claims he is cooperating with Colombia's
insurgents, denouncing the allegation as an international smear campaign
against him concocted by "the poisonous oligarchy of Bogota." Either way,
many Venezuelans are outraged that their land has become a base for foreign
guerrillas and right-wing paras and worried by the swarms of refugees
rushing in across their porous, 2,000-kilometer border with Colombia.

The cocaine trade has also made itself at home in Venezuela. Colombian
intelligence sources say roughly two thirds of their country's U.S. and
European cocaine exports are shipped through Venezuela, thanks in part to
Chavez's refusal to let drug-reconnaissance flights enter his airspace. "We
take two to three hours to detect, follow and intercept planes from
Venezuela," says one frustrated Colombian intelligence official. "They can
fly into illegal landing strips in our territory, load and take flight
within minutes, and it's absolutely impossible to do anything about it."
Recently there have been reports-hard to confirm or refute without Chavez's
cooperation-that new coca and poppy plantations are springing up on the
Venezuelan side of the border while local police look the other way. In the
words of another Colombian intelligence officer: "Someone is making a lot
of money in Venezuela."

Not the border ranchers.

These days many of them are barely hanging on. Otto Ramirez has moved
himself and his family off their ranch in the state of Tachira. He no
longer dares even to visit the property without a military escort.

In the neighboring Venezuelan state of Apure, another cattleman has decided
to sell out and leave.

He says it just wasn't worth the trouble of trying to negotiate with FARC
any longer; he couldn't count on them to keep their promises. "I created
this ranch from nothing 25 years ago, and this is the reward I get," says
the graying farmer.

He says he doesn't much care who winds up buying the place. "Even if it's
the guerrillas or the drug traffickers, what can I do? A war is going to
break out here." Some would say it already has. And the fear is that
Venezuela is only the beginning.

With Phil Gunson in Caracas and Steven Ambrus in Bogota

(SIDEBAR)

STRUCTURE: A $7.5 billion program that is intended to: Combat the narcotics
industry Promote the peace process Revive the Colombian economy Strengthen
democracy in Colombia

WHO PAYS: Colombia: Pledged $4 billion International community pays $3.5
billion.

So far, however, only the U.S. has pledged its support to Plan Colombia,
with a commitment of $1.3 billion for FY 2001, an emergency aid package
approved late in President Clinton's last term, which comes on top of a
previously budgeted $300 million.

WHAT U.S. AID IS FOR: Select from the chart above to learn about the
programs American aid will be funding.

$442.5 million To support the Colombia's effort to gain control of
drug-producing regions in southern Colombia, including training and
equipping the Colombian army anti-narcotics battalions, buying 16 Blackhawk
and 30 Huey helicopters, and support for 15 UH-1N helicopters. Of this
amount, $15 million is earmarked to help people displaced by the operation.

$378.6 million To enhance drug interdiction by upgrading radar used in U.S.
Customs surveillance aircraft, and upgrading Colombian aircraft,
interdiction programs and counternarcotics intelligence gathering.

$180 million For alternative development programs and interdiction in
Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil.

$122 million For support of human rights, judicial and other reforms to
support the peace process and strengthen Colombian democracy. Includes aid
to protect human rights groups, establish human rights units within the
national police force and prosecutor office, and train law enforcement in
anti-corruption, anti-money laundering and anti-kidnapping measures.

$115.6 million To support the national police, including purchase and
support of two Blackhawk helicopters, 12 Huey II helicopters and
crop-spraying aircraft as well as ammunition and communications equipment.

$106 million To support programs in Colombia to help opium and coca farmers
move to other crops.