U.S. MUST CURB APPETITE FOR DRUGS, COLOMBIAN LEADER SAYS

New York Times

CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA -- President Andres Pastrana said Tuesday that Colombia
cannot put a dent in international drug trafficking until the United States
and other countries do much more to control their people's appetite for drugs.

"Colombia can put a stop to drugs here at some point, but if the demand
continues, somebody else somewhere else in the world is going to produce
them," Pastrana said in an interview in Cartagena, where workers hurriedly
repaved streets to get ready for a visit today by President Clinton. "We
are already getting intelligence reports of possible plantings in Africa."

Pastrana's words seemed to strike a dissonant note, coming on the eve of
Clinton's arrival to inaugurate a costly plan to combat drug trafficking.
The joint plan aims to cut coca plantings in Colombia by 50 percent in five
years through a combination of military pressure, plant eradication and
social reforms.

Clinton's visit will be the first by a U.S. president in 11 years, and it
has been seen as a triumph for Pastrana's presidency, now at the midpoint
of his four-year term.

The plan includes $1.3 billion in U.S. aid that will be used in part to
train and outfit a Colombian antidrug brigade to support police efforts in
eradicating coca and in halting the processing and shipment of coca and
cocaine in two southern provinces that are largely controlled by Colombia's
biggest guerrilla group.

Regional leaders have expressed fears that the plan will widen the
guerrilla war and spill refugees and coca plants across the Brazilian,
Ecuadorean and Peruvian borders. Clinton and Pastrana will attempt to
counter those concerns with clear public commitments for more alternative
agricultural development and with relief for coca growers who lose their
illegal livelihoods.