BRAZIL PREPARES FOR DRUG INVASION

MANAUS, Brazil (AP) -- Explosions rocked the morning stillness, and pink
smoke billowed over the beachhead on the Amazon tributary. Brazilian
marines in black swooped down from helicopters and stormed up the sand,
machine guns crackling.

On a bluff above, military officers nodded their approval. If the Amazon
ever is invaded, said a voice over a loudspeaker, Brazil will be ready.

The show last week was for the benefit of defense ministers from around the
Americas who met in this Amazon jungle city. As nations in the region
debate the impact on them of Colombia's massive anti-drug plan, war games
have taken on a new edge.

Seven hundred miles west, in the sleepy border town of Tabatinga, Brazilian
federal police shipped in reinforcements and settled in for three years of
heightened vigilance along the 1,017-mile border with Colombia.

"All the papers -- the whole world was talking about the Colombia Plan,"
said Mauro Sposito, the federal police chief in charge of what Brazil calls
Operation Cobra. "We had to do something."

The $7.5 billion Colombia Plan will try to eradicate drug trafficking in
Colombia, the world's largest producer of cocaine. Colombia's neighbors
worry that its success might flood them with refugees, traffickers or
leftist guerrillas.

While Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso said the plan ``has
nothing to do with Brazil,'' he was quick to tighten security at the border.

Today, 180 federal police agents are stationed at seven bases along the
border, including along the four rivers that flow from Colombia into
Brazil. The hundreds of miles of marshy jungle are a natural barrier, and
the only way in is by air or water. Their operation includes 18 boats, two
planes and a helicopter.

"We took the lead so we wouldn't be surprised, but we're really not too
worried," Sposito said. "The guerrillas and the traffickers don't want to
come here, and if Colombians come as citizens, what's the problem?"

William Brownfield, the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the
Western Hemisphere, praised the operation during a visit to brief Brazilian
authorities about the Colombia Plan.

Still, it's hard to imagine Tabatinga at the front lines of a drug war.
Colombians and Brazilians mingle easily, mixing Spanish and Portuguese,
freely swapping Colombian pesos and Brazilian reales, simply trying to make
a living.

"Tabatinga is like part of us," said Mayor John Alex Benjumea Moreno of the
Colombian city Leticia, just across a small bridge from Brazil. "Our
relations are excellent, and the police presence is good. It guarantees
security."

At the Anzol police base on the upper Amazon River, known here as the
Solimoes, federal agents check every boat going by for drugs or contraband.
For now, Operation Cobra hasn't changed much.

"People here are alienated from the world," said agent Mario Mendes. "They
never heard of the Colombia Plan or Operation Cobra."