2ND U.S.-TAUGHT ANTI-DRUG UNIT TAKES FIELD

LARANDIA ARMY BASE, Colombia -- A cannon blast marked the start of the
ceremony at this sprawling military base deep in the jungles of southern
Colombia.

As 14 helicopters buzzed overhead, soldiers in camouflage face paint and
black berets marched through a cloud of yellow, blue and red smoke -- the
colors of the Colombian flag. A Catholic priest in a white cassock then
trudged across the field toward the formation, uttered a prayer and
sprinkled holy water.

With that, Colombia graduated the second of three army battalions to be
trained in the art of counternarcotics warfare by U.S. Army Special Forces
instructors. The training, and hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid
for troop helicopters and other military hardware, form the centerpiece of
President Andres Pastrana's ambitious plan to root out the coca cultivation
that has fueled Colombia's brutal civil conflict.

"A great responsibility rests on your shoulders," Colombian Defense Minister
Luis Fernando Ramirez told the graduating soldiers. "The hour has arrived,
as we've predicted, for this brigade to become the principal headache for a
small group of Colombians who have declared war on 40 million Colombians."

The battalion, numbering more than 600 soldiers, received training under a
$1.3 billion U.S. aid package designed to stem drug production in Colombia
and, in the process, cut leftist rebels off from their main source of
financing. When a third battalion completes training in April, Colombia will
have a 3,000-troop anti-narcotics brigade to use in Colombia's coca
heartland, the southern jungle provinces of Putumayo and Caqueta.

For the soldiers who form Battalion No. 2, the graduation was a
much-anticipated finale after four months of military and anti-narcotics
training, in addition to instructions on how to avoid entanglements
involving noncombatants.

Sgt. Mauricio Garcia, an 11-year veteran who marveled at how much better a
soldier he has become with U.S. instruction, said he was eager to swing into
action against drug traffickers.

"We want to finish off the coca and hit them hard," Garcia said. "It's so
important because this problem is finishing off our society. Little by
little they are doing away with us. So we are the ones who are going to
defend the people."

The graduation at Larandia had a festive air. Proud relatives in spiffy
clothes beamed as young soldiers received certificates and congratulatory
handshakes from the military brass. The graduates posed for pictures with
Gen. Fernando Tapias, commander of the Colombian armed forces, and Gen.
Jorge Mora, chief of the army.

But the soldiers and high-ranking Colombian and U.S. officials were under no
illusions.

The counternarcotics brigade is expected to meet stiff resistance in the
field, either from drug traffickers or rebels of the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The rebel group, with an estimated 17,000
fighters, is accused of making millions of dollars by taxing traffickers and
running the coca-processing labs scattered throughout the jungle.

"When you start operations there will be battles," said Gen. Peter Pace,
commander of U.S. forces in Latin America and a guest at the graduation
ceremonies. "From a peace standpoint this is not good, but from a long-term
perspective, you've got to do what the government of Colombia is trying to
do."

And officials and other experts in both Colombia and the United States have
questioned how effective the brigade will be.

"They could very well be engaged with paramilitary forces, as well as FARC
forces," said Rep. Bill Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat who is on the
International Relations Committee. "So it further complicates the picture.
It adds an additional burden to their mission, and I think it creates a more
dangerous mission because of the increasing presence of the paramilitaries."