U.S. AID TO COLOMBIA WORRIES HEMISPHERE'S DEFENSE LEADERS

MANAUS, Brazil, Oct. 17 - Defense ministers from throughout the Western
Hemisphere assembled here in the heart of the Amazon today to begin four
days of meetings aimed at strengthening military and security cooperation in
the region.

But the formal agenda of the meeting was overshadowed by the deepening
conflict in Colombia, and the increased American commitment there. Leaders
continued to express reservations about being drawn into the conflict in any
way.

Both the American secretary of defense, William Cohen, and his Colombian
counterpart, Luis Fernando Ramirez Acuna, were on hand to allay concerns
generated by the Clinton administration's recent decision to provide $1.3
billion in emergency aid, most of it in military assistance, to support the
Colombian government.

"It's a very delicate situation internally in Colombia," Fernando Henrique
Cardoso, the president of Brazil, said at a news conference this afternoon
after formally opening the conference, attended by every country in the
Americas except Cuba. But, he added, "the problem is a domestic problem,"
and "we are not interested at all in any kind of Brazilian intervention in
Colombia."

This city and the issue of Amazon security were chosen as the locale and
theme of the meeting months before the United States approved the aid
package, which is aimed at weakening drug traffickers and the guerrilla
groups that protect them. But "Plan Colombia," as the effort is called, has
forced every government in the region to reassess its military readiness and
has drawn widespread criticism from politicians, the press and religious
leaders.

During a visit to Brazil in late August, for instance, President Hugo Chavez
of Venezuela warned that the American aid plan could lead to "the
Vietnamization of the entire Amazon." Without mentioning Mr. Chavez by name,
Mr. Cohen, who returned to Washington this afternoon in order to attend a
memorial service on Wednesday for the sailors who died in the attack on the
American destroyer Cole, emphatically denied that any such escalation will
take place.

"We do not, under any circumstances, intend to become involved militarily in
Colombia," Mr. Cohen said. "Anything that you read or hear to the contrary
is completely false and fabricated."

Government leaders, especially in the five countries that border Colombia,
have expressed concern that an influx of coca cultivation, refugees and
fighting on their own territory may result from the push the Colombian
government is planning into coca-growing areas under guerrilla control. But
Mr. Cohen argued that any effort to ignore the crisis or stay aloof from it
is likely to backfire.

"The United States is concerned that the `spillover' of those problems to
neighboring states, which has been increasing in recent years, will only
worsen if we do nothing," he said. "Working together, we hope to help
Colombia in its time of need and prevent the conflict from shifting
Colombia's problems to its neighbors."

Just in the last week, the government of Ecuador has accused Colombia's main
guerrilla group of invading its territory to kidnap 10 foreign oil workers,
and a village in Panama was attacked by an armed group, either guerrillas or
a paramilitary unit, that came over the Colombian border. In addition,
Colombia says that Venezuelan troops violated the border over the weekend,
razing coca fields and destroying homes and farm animals.

South American leaders have been careful to draw a distinction between the
military buildup and efforts by the Colombian government to negotiate a
peace accord with Marxist rebel groups, which does have regional support.
But Gen. Alberto Cardoso, the Brazilian government's chief national security
adviser, went out of his way to praise American officials for what he
described as a steady stream of briefings and consultations.

"The government of the United States has acted correctly with the neighbors
of Colombia by regularly keeping us informed," he said in an interview
earlier this month in Brasilia. "Every month one or two American officials
have come here to talk with me."

On their own, some countries have already increased deployments of the
police and soldiers along their borders with Colombia, and other joint
efforts are also under way.