U.S. FEARS SPILLOVER OF DRUG TRADE

As Colombia Cracks Down, Nearby Nations Need Help To Stop Traffickers From
Relocating, Officials Say.

Washington --- A top official said Monday the Clinton administration plans
to augment efforts to deal with the possibility that Colombian drug
traffickers will transfer their activities to neighboring countries as
Colombia develops more effective ways to fight the narcotics trade.

The State Department's third-ranking official, Thomas Pickering, said the
issue will be a "centerpiece" of the administration's counternarcotics
assistance requests next year.

Pickering said bipartisan support for the existing $1.3 billion program,
directed mainly at Colombia, ensures the counterdrug effort will continue
regardless of who is elected president.

"The issue of spillover is real," said Pickering, who visited Colombia last
week along with Barry McCaffrey, head of the White House drug control office.

Pickering said drug operations have spilled into Colombia because highly
effective counterdrug operations in Peru and Bolivia forced traffickers to
relocate.

The U.S. goal, he said, is to strengthen counterdrug efforts in countries
where traffickers already operate or that may be future targets. Among
those countries are Venezuela, Brazil and Panama, Pickering said, adding
that spillover could jeopardize the current sharp reduction in drug
trafficking in Peru and Bolivia.

The administration lost a key supporter recently when Rep. Benjamin Gilman
(R-N.Y.), chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said
officials made a "major mistake" in shifting most counternarcotics
assistance to Colombia from the police to the military.

Another critic, Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.), planned to fly to Colombia
today to assess the administration's strategy. Wellstone said he was
concerned the administration's counterdrug strategy in Colombia is becoming
a military counterinsurgency policy.