AMBITIOUS PLAN TO FIGHT DRUGS

Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox says U.S. drug policy doesn't work. He
told President Clinton last week that the solution is a multilateral
approach based on cooperation among the United States, Mexico and Colombia.

Those three nations are the principal consumer, distributor and producer of
cocaine in this hemisphere. Having heard from Fox, Mr. Clinton flew south on
Wednesday to launch Plan Colombia.

At a cost of $1.3 billion, Plan Colombia is not just controversial in
Washington and Bogota. It is controversial throughout the hemisphere, as
nations wonder if such massive actions centered on poor regions like
southern Colombia won't create more problems than they solve.

The plan has its risks. Much of the money goes to Colombia's army, not
exactly a model of military professionalism, to train two new battalions and
equip them with 60 helicopters.

The army's mission is to take control of the jungle areas where coca is
grown and eradicate the crops.

The plan has come under attack by human rights groups, concerned with the
record of Colombia's military; by environmentalists, concerned about the use
of sprayed herbicides; and by neighboring countries, concerned about
refugees. It also is attacked by some Colombians, concerned about escalating
the civil war against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC,
the rebel faction that rakes off profits from the coca growers.

All these fears were expressed to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on
her trip through the region this month. In Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Brazil
and Panama, Albright was told that the coming escalation against FARC risked
spreading the Colombian conflict throughout the region.

The problem with that reasoning is this: Southern Colombia, the departments
of Putumayo and Caqueta, have become the center of the action.

As nations like Peru win the war against drugs, and as Colombians, with U.S.
help, chase the cartels from the big cities, the industry has made southern
Colombia its bastion.

Attack it there, with enough resources, and the crops can be wiped out, and
with them the FARC, which depends on drug money to continue its war.

Yes, Plan Colombia has its risks, and the drug industry is crafty,
constantly shifting to new terrains when it is harassed. But Plan Colombia
also represents precisely the kind of multilateral approach to the drug
problem that Fox discussed with Mr. Clinton last week. The far bigger risk
- -- for Colombia, Mexico and the United States -- would be to do nothing.

Past Colombian governments have looked the other way.

Too many Mexican governments have been riddled with drug corruption.
Colombian President Andres Pastrana and Fox represent a new approach, and
the United States would be foolish not to give them all the help they need.
AT ISSUE: Will Plan Colombia deal a major blow to South American drug
cartels?