PASTRANA PLEDGES COLOMBIA WON'T BE LIKE VIETNAM

Colombian President Andres Pastrana promised U.S. governors at their
mid-winter conference here yesterday that "the United States will never get
bogged down in Colombia's armed conflict."

Noting that "many here . . . make comparisons with America's experience in
Vietnam," Pastrana said that neither the people nor the government in
either country would support U.S. troop involvement in Colombia's ongoing
war against leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary groups. "In
short," he said, "it is not on the table, not now or in the future."

But in a brief speech to the National Governors Association, Pastrana also
made three requests, asking for continued U.S. efforts to curb domestic
demand for Colombian-produced cocaine and heroin, and a sustained U.S.
commitment to counter-narcotics cooperation and peace negotiations with the
guerrillas who feed financially off the drug business.

Most important, in Pastrana's view, he asked the governors to support
liberalized trade initiatives and increased U.S. investment to bolster the
Colombian economy.

Despite close cooperation on anti-drug efforts, the Clinton administration
never came through on promised trade liberalization that Pastrana believes
is vital for Colombia to turn the corner on drug production. During a
four-day visit that began Saturday, Pastrana hopes to change the focus of
U.S.-Colombian relations from fears of Vietnam and concerns over human
rights abuses by the Colombian military to building support for economic
measures, including the reestablishment of an international coffee quota
system that lapsed under Clinton and the renewal and expansion of a trade
preference agreement due to expire in December.

Leading up to a meeting Tuesday with President Bush, Pastrana will meet
with U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick, Commerce Secretary
Donald L. Evans and Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill, as well as
representatives of the international financial institutions headquartered
in Washington.

Pastrana also plans meetings with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld,
congressional leaders and Vice President Cheney.

Pastrana has every reason to believe that the Bush administration agrees
with him. In his only campaign speech devoted to the Western Hemisphere,
Bush said in August that trade would be the centerpiece of his regional
policy. Among pending agreements, the administration has spoken favorably
of expanding the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and
Mexico. Negotiations on a separate Free Trade Agreement of the Americas
(FTAA) have been underway for more than six years and could top the agenda
at a hemispheric summit scheduled for April in Quebec City.

Colombia, and a number of other Latin American governments, would like to
advance the starting date for FTAA from 2005 to 2003. But in the meantime,
Colombia is asking for special treatment. In addition to coffee quotas to
buttress falling world prices for a leading Colombian export, Colombia is
asking that the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) be immediately renewed
and expanded to eliminate tariffs on Colombian textiles and apparel.

Such expansion would put Colombia on par with Caribbean apparel producers
who scored a big advantage with agreements eliminating such tariffs in
October. The ATPA was originally established in 1991 as a 10-year
preference to lure farmers in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia away from drug
cultivation to crops such as cut flowers and fruit.

"Convincing guerrillas to lay down their arms, and getting peasants to move
from coca cultivation into the legitimate economy means we have to create
jobs for tens of thousands of Colombians," Pastrana told the governors.

After his speech to the governors association, Pastrana attended a Mass at
St. Matthew's Cathedral, dedicated to Colombian peace and celebrated by the
Vatican's representative to Washington, Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, a
Colombian.

Yesterday afternoon, Pastrana and other officials watched the Academy
Award-nominated movie "Traffic" at the Motion Picture Association of
America downtown screening room. The movie depicts drug smuggling across
the Mexican border through the eyes of a Mexican policeman, a major
smuggler's family, federal agents and the head of the White House Drug
Control Policy Office.

Asked afterward what he thought of the movie, Pastrana said he liked it.
But, he said enviously, "there were no guerrillas and paramilitaries" to
contend with in the film.