PLAN TO LIFT LIMITS ON PAST COLOMBIA AID

U.S. Planes Could Hunt Guerrillas

Washington -- The Bush administration has asked Congress to allow the
Colombian government to use past anti-drug contributions of
helicopters, planes, gunboats and other equipment in its expanding
campaign against guerrilla groups, officials said yesterday.

The administration has previously signaled that it would ask Congress
to allow new aid to be used for "counterterrorism" activities, as well
as for the anti-drug effort. But, in a supplemental budget request
submitted this week, the administration seeks to further leverage the
efforts against the rebels by loosening restrictions on past aid as
well.

The supplemental budget request that includes the unfettering of past
aid also seeks $35 million in new funding for the current year. The
sum would be in addition to $435 million the administration already
requested for Colombia for fiscal 2003.

"This is big," said Adam Isacson, a Latin American expert at the
Center for International Policy, a center-left think tank in Washington.

Congressional aides of the two major U.S. parties expect a fight over
the proposal this spring because some lawmakers fear that broadening
military aid could mire the United States in a conflict that has raged
for 38 years.

Critics say the budget request language permitting use of the money
for "counterterrorism" defines its purpose so broadly that the
Colombian government "could use it for almost anything," in the words
of one aide.

Bush administration aides have been arguing that the United States
needs to quickly step up the battle against the two main Colombian
rebel groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the
National Liberation Army. The leftist guerrillas are battling
Colombian government forces and right-wing paramilitary groups.

U.S. officials contend that the United States should intervene because
the groups pose a threat to an allied democracy and to Americans directly.

Administration officials maintain that past U.S. policy, which tried
to limit aid to the anti-drug effort, was unrealistic because the
rebels have turned to drug trafficking to fund their insurgency.

U.S. aid to Colombia has been allocated to a variety of purposes,
including building the country's economy and developing its democratic
institutions. But the U.S. anti-drug aid has bought military equipment
that could be used against the rebels.

The United States has appropriated money to provide about 75
helicopters for the Colombian military, according to analyst Isacson,
although not all of those are now ready for operations. He said the
United States has also bought about a dozen helicopters for the
Colombian police and has provided fixed-wing aircraft with
sophisticated sensors, and some river gunboats that are armed with
machine guns.