COLOMBIA WINNING DRUG WAR, BUSH SAYS

CARTAGENA, Colombia - President Bush pledged new drug-fighting aid and
praised Colombia's leader on Monday as an effective foe of drug
traffickers and the militant groups they help finance.

Arriving for a brief visit under extraordinary security, Bush said
that President Alvaro Uribe is winning the decades-long drug war in
Colombia with the help of the United States.

Bush pledged to press Congress to continue funding programs that have
provided Colombia with $3 billion in U.S. military and economic aid
over the past four years. The payback, Bush said, has been a sharp
increase in arrests, eradication and drug seizures that U.S. officials
say has stopped 475 tons of cocaine from entering the United States
this year.

"This man's plan is working," Bush said after two hours of meetings
with Uribe, who said that continued U.S. aid is needed to ensure success.

"We cannot stop this task halfway through," Uribe said, standing
beside Bush at an outdoor press conference. "We will win, but we have
not won yet. . . . The serpent is still alive."

The brief but warm visit between the leaders contrasted sharply with
the acrimony over a security flap between Bush's Secret Service detail
and Chilean security during a weekend summit.

After Bush personally intervened in the incident in Santiago, Chile,
on Saturday, an elaborate state dinner with 200 people planned for
Sunday was canceled and replaced with a small working dinner,
reportedly because Chilean President Ricardo Lagos rejected Secret
Service demands for guests to walk through metal detectors.

Security was abundant Monday in Colombia but not an issue. As Bush and
Uribe spoke, Cartagena Bay behind them was clear of all boats except
security craft. A military helicopter hovered high in the distance.
And heavily armed guards accompanied the presidential motorcade, with
Bush riding in an armored U.S. sport utility vehicle instead of his
usual Cadillac limousine.

Colombia is the world's leading producer of illegal drugs, providing
90 percent of the cocaine that comes into the United States. Drug
lords effectively control large parts of the country.

Bush has asked Congress for $566 million in assistance to Colombia for
the coming year. Three-fourths of the money would go toward military
assistance and police training. There are 325 U.S. troops and 600
military-trained U.S. civilians under contract assisting Colombia in
countering the drug rings.

"The drug traffickers who practice violence and intimidation in this
country send their addictive and deadly products to the United
States," Bush said. "Defeating them is vital to the safety of our
peoples and to the stability of the hemisphere."

Despite the gains, critics allege that the Bush administration is
fighting a losing battle and, in the process, aggravating Colombia's
internal strife by adding U.S. military might to the equation.

The real enemy, some say, is the poverty - per capita income in
Colombia averages $1,700 a year - that drives peasants to grow coca,
the raw material for cocaine.

"Instead of pumping more military aid into Colombia, Washington
policymakers need to refocus their attention on the underlying cause
of coca production in the Andean country: endemic poverty, a rampant
unemployment rate and a lack of alternative job opportunities," the
Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a nonpartisan Washington think tank,
said in a statement.

Bush left Cartagena aboard Air Force One bound for Texas, where he
planned to spend the rest of Thanksgiving week at his ranch.