COLOMBIA COCAINE OFFENSIVE ADVANCES

But Doubts Arise For U.S.-Backed Effort

BOGOTA, Colombia -- U.S.-trained army troops are sweeping through the
world's top cocaine-producing region, protecting crop dusters from enemy
fire as they wipe out coca crops at an astonishing pace.

But the initial success of the anti-drug offensive -- heavily supported by
the United States and criticized by European nations -- cannot be sustained
indefinitely, acknowledged a senior U.S. military official based in Colombia.

Washington's gamble that it can win the drug war with military power
includes the deployment of U.S. special forces as trainers to jungle camps
near the war zone and the delivery of dozens of combat helicopters.

So far, the results of the counterdrug operations in southern Putumayo
state, the world's largest cocaine-producing region, have been beyond most
anyone's expectations, although some food crops have been destroyed.

In the past month, 62,000 acres of coca have been fumigated in Putumayo,
said the U.S. military official, who spoke on condition that he not be
further identified. That acreage is at least one-third of the coca crop
believed to exist in Putumayo, and more than half the coca that was
fumigated across all of Colombia in 1999.

But the pace will be virtually impossible to maintain, the U.S. official
said, partly because of expected "hostile fire" and logistics in the remote
Amazonian region.

The country's largest rebel group -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, or FARC -- earns huge profits by protecting coca crops and taxing
the growers. Rebel threats to resist the offensive haven't yet materialized
into major action.

But 70 percent of the coca fumigated so far in Putumayo was not under
control of the FARC, but of a right-wing paramilitary group, the U.S.
military official said.

The paramilitary group, which also "taxes" the coca industry, is unlikely
to fight the army because it often maintains covert alliances with army
officers -- as noted in a recent White House human rights report.

Gonzalo de Francisco, President Andres Pastrana's point man for Putumayo,
agreed that when the U.S.-trained army troops move into guerrilla
strongholds, fighting will intensify.

"The FARC has been there for five years," he said. "They will resist."

It's the goal of the U.S. and Colombia that the increased spray operations
will eventually outpace the planters' ability to move to new areas.

Under the U.S. aid package, 10 fumigation planes will be deployed in
addition to the 10 already being used.

U.S. special forces also have been training three Colombian army
battalions, containing about 3,000 troops, to fight the drug war.

The United States also will be sending dozens of Black Hawk helicopters to
Colombia later this year and "Super Huey" helicopters by March 2002.

Meanwhile, Pastrana agreed yesterday to meet with FARC's leader this week
and extended a guerrilla enclave in southern Colombia for at least four
more days to save peace talks.

The president said he will meet with Manuel Marulanda on Thursday somewhere
inside the guerrilla's Switzerland-sized enclave, according to a letter
read yesterday by Pastrana's peace envoy, Camilo Gomez.

Gomez said the zone will be extended "for the time necessary to hold the
meeting," but didn't set a new deadline.

Later yesterday, Pastrana made a surprise visit with Gomez to San Vicente
del Caguan, the main town inside the guerrilla-controlled enclave. The
president told reporters he was there to talk with residents about "their
anxieties and worries."