U.S. DRUG CHIEF TRIES TO BOOST COLOMBIAN RESOLVE

The U.S. drug policy director, Barry R. McCaffrey, predicted today that the
United States will pursue its strong support of Colombia's efforts to
reduce drug production regardless of who becomes the next president of the
United States.

But McCaffrey, on a visit here in the waning days of the Clinton
administration, also warned that winning back Colombia's vast
coca-producing regions from armed groups on the left and right will "not be
easy."

McCaffrey's valedictory visit to a country that has posed perhaps his most
vexing challenge came as Colombia, among the world's largest producers of
cocaine and heroin, enters a new phase with the start of a U.S.-backed
anti-drug program. His remarks, delivered to students and faculty of
Colombia's diplomatic academy and war college, were meant to steel
Colombian resolve for the $7.5 billion Plan Colombia economic development
and anti-drug campaign in the face of mounting clashes between armed groups
vying for control of drug-producing regions.

"There will be no change in the long-term U.S. commitment for Plan
Colombia," McCaffrey said in a speech at the graceful Spanish colonial-era
Foreign Ministry building. "This is not North Korea. This is a democracy
three hours from Miami. We simply have no choice but to understand that our
interests are wrapped up in the success of Venezuela, Colombia and other
regional partners."

Directing U.S. drug policy from his office in the White House, McCaffrey
has been the principal advocate for a $1.3 billion U.S. aid package to
Colombia, most of which goes for transport helicopters and military
training but which also includes money to build health clinics, roads and
other public institutions in drug-producing areas with little government
presence.

The strategy is designed to encourage coca and poppy farmers to turn to
legal crops, thus depriving the armed groups of the money they need to
finance their operations, or face aerial fumigation.

The aid package runs through the end of fiscal 2001, when the incoming U.S.
administration will have to seek more money. Officials here and in
Washington acknowledge that it will be difficult to produce enough visible
progress by then to persuade Congress to reinvest in the program.

Human rights groups and European diplomats have warned that the current
package, eagerly sought by President Andres Pastrana as part of his broader
peace effort, will exacerbate the conflict with its large component of U.S.
military aid. McCaffrey met with European ambassadors this morning hoping
to dispel their concerns and encourage their countries to contribute more
to Colombia than the approximately $300 million they have committed so far.

McCaffrey, former commander of the U.S. Southern Command, asked the
Colombian government for a venue to make a public address during his
two-day visit. His speech was laced with warnings about the drug trade's
staying power in the Andean region, but it mostly resembled a pep talk to a
suffering country.

"If there is one thing there is no shortage of in Colombia," he said, "it's
courage."

He acknowledged, though, that the anti-drug offensive now unfolding has yet
to show results. He said coca production figures would likely be higher
when announced in February, and that aerial surveillance shows coca farmers
in southern Colombia are already moving deeper into the Amazon basin.

More pointedly, McCaffrey warned that Colombia's conflict poses serious
threats to its neighbors. He said that, after years of reducing coca
production in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, the United States should commit an
additional $400 million to $600 million to prevent Colombia's drug trade
from spilling its border.

That movement is already occurring. Marianne da Costa de Moraes, Austria's
ambassador here, said she heard evidence during a visit to Ecuador's
capital Quito last week that Colombian drug growers are buying large plots
of land just over the border in Ecuador using false identity papers.

So far, Plan Colombia has provoked increased violence as armed groups that
profit from the drug trade step up operations before U.S.-trained anti-drug
battalions swing into action next month. Daily battles between leftist
guerrillas and their paramilitary rivals have virtually paralyzed the
Vermont-size southern province of Putumayo, killing hundreds of combatants
and bystanders.

Last week, Colombia's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia (FARC), abandoned peace talks with the government after
accusing it of failing to move against rival paramilitary groups. Neither
side is optimistic the talks will begin again soon, and McCaffrey noted
that the FARC is using a southeastern demilitarized zone created for the
peace talks to increase coca cultivation.

Throughout the day, McCaffrey emphasized that the U.S. military package is
directed against the drug trade, not the decades-old leftist insurgency.
But as in the past, he called the FARC "the principal organizing entity of
cocaine production in the world."