AID TO COLOMBIA

A foreign policy conundrum demands action. But is $1.3 billion the answer?

Welcome to Colombia.

Guerrillas control a Switzerland-size swath of land. Drug money corrupts
many governmental institutions. Thousands are kidnapped for ransom every
year. The middle class does what it can to move to Miami.

Meanwhile, 40 million citizens are held hostage by a long-running civil war
and a bloody battle for profits in the world's largest cocaine-exporting
nation.

President Clinton stopped off in Colombia recently to hand over the
ceremonial down payment of a $1.3 billion aid package aimed at
strengthening military anti-drug efforts.

Some of the money will go to modernizing the Colombian judiciary and
supporting crop substitution programs. Colombia has also pledged to invest
in reforms, and significant aid from Europe for other infrastructure
projects is likely.

But nearly $1 billion of the total U.S. aid package will be in the form of
military assistance, including the purchase of 60 helicopters and drug
interdiction training by U.S. military advisers.

The money will not end cocaine production in Colombia, and it could even
aggravate the civil war, but Colombia's strategic importance to the United
States and the continuing decay of democracy in the region demand action.
This aid package is not a fix-all, but it is consistent with the
long-standing U.S. commitment to champion democracy and combat the
production of illegal drugs.

Colombia has become a narco-state, where government and drugs are
inextricably linked. As long as drugs spew forth in a torrent from the
countryside, the government's legitimacy will continue to diminish. The
populace is increasingly dissatisfied; trust in the government has been
steadily undermined; and the national psyche has been rocked by a rising
tide of lawlessness.

Unsurprisingly, the Colombian quagmire presents significant challenges to
any U.S. aid effort; things are messy, dirty and not always clear-cut.
There isa risk that anti-drug funds will be diverted to military efforts
and that human rights abuses will go unpunished. The aid package includes
safeguards, but it is nigh on to impossible to draw a line in the sand in
the middle of a Colombian jungle.

The compelling impetus behind the U.S. aid package is largely strategic.
Colombia is a key to stability in the increasingly volatile Andean region.
Ecuador has seen two coups in five years and has cycled through six
presidents. Venezuela is in the throes of constitutional renovation under
the populist reign of President Hugo Chavez. Peruvian President Alberto
Fujimori has all but abandoned any pretense of allowing a transfer of power
after consistently manipulating the constitution.

Amid this precarious situation, Colombia's South American neighbors are
either unable or unwilling to get involved. U.S. aid thus comes at a
crucial time, when both democracy and regional stability are imperiled.
Throwing money at the problem will not cure Colombia's ills by itself, but
the aid package is a tactical display of support for a government sorely in
need of endorsement.

The risks of doing nothing are too great. The United States must continue
to support the Colombian government; the alternative is potential chaos and
an erosion of support for democracy throughout the region.

Good intentions lie behind the $1.3 billion aid package, but Colombian
discipline and continued U.S. involvement will be needed to bring some
measure of stability to the region.