COLOMBIA TRIES TO BOLSTER INTERNAL, REGIONAL SECURITY

Bogota, Colombia -- President Alvaro Uribe plans to call for significant
changes in the principal security agreement in the Americas, saying
Colombia's neighbors should understand that guerrillas and drug traffickers
pose a threat to everyone.

In his first newspaper interview since taking office Aug. 7, Uribe told The
Miami Herald that an overhaul of existing security treaties is
indispensable to stop the growing threat to democracy in the region.

So far, only the United States provides a significant measure of military
assistance to Colombia, home to the largest insurgency in Latin America and
the major source of cocaine in the world. Neighboring countries provide
small levels of aid sporadically, even though some are used for refuge by
Colombian anti-government forces.

Uribe's proposal would mark a sharp departure from Colombia's previous
policy and present a significant challenge to its neighbors, which have
traditionally been reluctant to become involved in regional wars for fear
of stirring up domestic opposition.

"The first thing we have to do is to identify common enemies," Uribe said.
"The Colombian problem is a common enemy to this continent's democracy.
These violent groups in Colombia have the potential to destabilize all
democracies in the region."

Uribe, who won Colombia's election in a landslide with his hard-line
platform to root out rebel groups, said he would propose to "modernize" the
1947 Inter-American Mutual Defense Treaty, also known as the Rio Treaty.

The U.S.-backed agreement, originally aimed at fighting communism, declared
that any external attack on any member country would be considered an
attack against all.

"We should modernize that treaty," Uribe said, adding the biggest threat to
the region's democracy is no longer external attack but rather violent
internal opposition.

Uribe said Colombia needs "concrete help" from its neighbors and a revamped
Rio Treaty would help commit countries to providing such assistance.

Colombian officials say neighboring countries are patrolling their borders
to keep rebels from the 17,000-strong Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia and drug traffickers from crossing into their territories.

But security is lax, and there is little cross-border military cooperation
with countries such as Venezuela, Colombian military officers say. With
Brazil, Ecuador and Peru, military cooperation is spotty, they say.

Uribe said neighboring countries could offer greater cooperation on issues
such as stopping or shooting down narco-guerrilla planes.

Citing the case of Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez has been accused
by former Colombian officials of providing political support for the FARC
rebels, Uribe said: "I don't know of any case in which we alerted Venezuela
and they refused to help. What I do know is that we seize only 20 percent
of the cocaine that leaves from here, and that these drug shipments cross
territories, seas or air spaces of neighboring countries."

Uribe's call for amending the Rio Treaty came only a week after Mexico
pulled out of the agreement, calling it obsolete. Mexican President Vicente
Fox offered to replace the treaty with a new one to be discussed at a
hemispheric security meeting next year.

Under the Mexican proposal, the new treaty would seek military cooperation
on natural disasters, epidemics and poverty-related issues.

Asked about the Mexican proposal, Uribe said, "I like to keep things
simple. I'm not opposed to what Mexico is doing, but what I have believed
until now is that we should make an addition to the Inter-American Mutual
Defense Treaty."

Former U.S. Ambassador Myles R. Frechette, now president of Council of the
Americas, a New York-based nonprofit business group, welcomed Uribe's proposal.

"Uribe is right on target. The problem in Colombia of narco-trafficking and
guerrilla terrorism is not just Colombia's; it's Brazil's and that of other
neighboring countries as well," he said.