DRUG WAR ALLIES

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. Clinton will fly 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.

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.

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 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 terrain when it is harassed. But Plan
Colombia also represents precisely the kind of multilateral approach to
the drug problem that Fox discussed with 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.