KEY LAWMAKER DROPS SUPPORT FOR AID TO COLOMBIAN ARMED FORCES

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Benjamin Gilman, chairman of the House International
Relations Committee, has abruptly withdrawn his support from the decision
to funnel $1.3 billion in mostly military aid to Colombia, arguing that the
United States is on the brink of a "major mistake."

Gilman, R-N.Y., sent a letter this week to the White House drug policy
coordinator, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, contending that the U.S. plan to
increase the Colombian military role in the drug fight will end
disastrously, because the armed forces have undermined their political
support after a history of corruption and human rights abuses. That
position echoes other critics of the plan.

Gilman called on the Clinton administration to redirect its assistance,
including at least 40 Black Hawk helicopters, from the Colombian armed
forces to the national police. Gilman has long admired the police, which he
views as more effective and less tainted by human rights violations.

"If we fail early on with Plan Colombia, as I fear, we could lose the
support of the American people for our efforts to fight illicit narcotics
abroad," Gilman said. "If we lose public support, we will regret we did not
make the mid-corrections for Colombia that I have outlined here."

Last summer, Gilman voted to support Plan Colombia, a $7.5 billion strategy
drafted jointly by U.S. and Colombian officials and passed by Congress.

In addition to the military spending, the program allocates money to
promote alternative crops, economic renewal and human rights. The plan
seeks to halve drug production over five years in Colombia, reportedly the
source of most of the cocaine and heroin that enters the United States.

Congressional sources said Gilman was troubled by recent military failures
in rural areas where rebel forces operate.

It is unclear what effects, if any, Gilman's change of view will have.

Critics of Plan Colombia argue that the military aid would merely intensify
the conflict in which two rebel groups have joined with narcotics
traffickers against the government, a conflict that could eventually draw
the United States directly into fighting the rebels.

Leaders of Colombia's neighbors also have expressed fears that the fighting
will spill into their countries.

Washington counters that Colombia's increasingly jumbled battle lines make
it necessary to equip and deploy the armed forces in the fight against
drugs. The U.S. plan calls for training three counternarcotics battalions,
a total of up to 3,000 troops.

The administration also has promised to watch over the military record on
human rights. A spokesman for McCaffrey, Robert Weiner, said Thursday that
denying aid to the armed forces on the basis of past performance would
ensure defeat.

"Granted they're not a superpower," Weiner said. "One of the major purposes
of the Plan Colombia is to provide the military with the resources they
need. This actually scares the cartels to death."