CLINTON WILL VISIT A COLOMBIA WHERE DRUGS ARE JUST ONE OF MANY WOES

BOGOTA - President Bill Clinton is to arrive Wednesday in Colombia to
emphasize U.S. support for President Andres Pastrana and symbolically hand
over a check for $1.3 billion in new anti-drug aid.

But neither the personal backing nor the aid is likely to do much, in the
short term at least, to address the domestic problems Mr. Pastrana faces at
the midpoint of a presidency that has been on a steady downward trajectory
since his inauguration two years ago. Most of his troubles have little to
do directly with the drug trafficking that is the main focus of U.S. attention.

Beset by economic woes - particularly a stubborn unemployment rate that has
topped 20 percent - Mr. Pastrana also has been assailed and blocked at
every turn by a Congress in which he has never commanded a majority and
which mistrusts his motives, dislikes many of his policies and feels he is
not up to the job. Already several rivals are campaigning to replace him.

Although he was elected on a peace platform with the greatest number of
votes ever tallied in a national election here, fewer than 30 percent of
Colombians believed Mr. Pastrana was doing a good job during most of this
year, according to nationwide opinion polls. In a recent survey asking who
has the most power in Colombia, 46 percent of those questioned named the
leftist guerrilla leader Manuel Marulanda, and nearly a third said the
United States. Mr. Pastrana was far behind with 10 percent.

Few say they believe his peace negotiations with the guerrillas are going
anywhere, and both violence and drug exports have continued to soar.
According to a government report released last week, Colombia's murder rate
leaves an average of one person dead every 20 minutes - a rate higher than
that for car theft. An average of seven of Colombia's 38 million people are
kidnapped each day.

Many, although far from most, of these crimes are committed by participants
in a war that pits leftist guerrillas against both the Colombian military
and rightist paramilitary groups. The majority are attributed to common
criminals who have thrived in the overall climate of lawlessness.

"Colombia has lots of laws, but no law," said Carlos Lemoine, president of
the National Polling Center, the country's largest polling firm.
"Guerrillas, narco-traffickers and paramilitary groups provide training
grounds for criminals. Now, if you commit a crime, you can hide behind
them." Arrest and conviction rates are minuscule.

Although the government has tried to address such problems as the more than
1 million Colombians driven from their homes by violence and the lack of a
government social or law enforcement presence in many regions, little
visible progress has been made.

In a series of second anniversary interviews this month, Mr. Pastrana
defended his leadership and achievements. "Internationally, we can now walk
with our heads higher than ever before," he told the newsmagazine Cambio.
"The entire world supports us and is with us in economic and social policy,
and in the fight against narco-traffic and in my efforts to achieve peace,
among other things. This achievement is 100 percent due to my government's
policies."

In terms of the peace negotiations under way with the country's two largest
guerrilla groups, the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces and the National
Liberation Army, Mr. Pastrana said, "We have moved forward; unfortunately
it has been slow, as happens in these processes."

Although most Colombians continue to support the peace process, Mr.
Pastrana has gotten little in return for turning over a Switzerland-size
swath of south-central Colombia to the Revolutionary Armed Forces and
negotiating a smaller demilitarized zone with the National Liberation Army
in the north. For many, Mr. Pastrana has turned out to be a "one-idea man,"
said Miguel Silva of the weekly Semana.

"The truth is that his principal policy has been peace," said Javier
Hendez, political editor of El Espectador, a leading Bogota newspaper. "But
Colombians across the board don't see it getting any results that are
reflected in their own lives. What they do see is a lot of things are
worse." In addition to the violence, "there is no government
infrastructure, higher taxes and worse services."

"The public's view of Pastrana," Mr. Hendez said, "is worse than of Samper
on his worst day." Ernesto Samper, Mr. Pastrana's predecessor, is widely
credited with driving Colombia's long-solid economy into the ground,
allowing drug traffickers free rein and ruining the country's international
reputation.

As for Mr. Clinton's visit, polls indicate the vast majority of Colombians
hold him and the United States in high regard. Although Colombian labor
unions and humanitarian organizations are among those who have denounced
the U.S. aid package as far too heavily weighted toward military assistance
and charge that it will intensify the war, many here say Colombia has run
out of options. There is a fairly widespread belief that escalation from a
position of military strength could finally drive the guerrillas toward a
real peace and may offer the only way left to start to make things better.