COLOMBIAN REBELS SLAM U.S. AID EFFORT

SAN VICENTE DEL CAGUAN, Colombia - Leftist rebels who oppose growing U.S.
ties to Colombia's military have promised not to stage attacks to disrupt
President Clinton's upcoming visit to the South American country.

"We will not impede [the Aug. 30 visit] with guerrilla actions," Andres
Paris, a commander and spokesman of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, told the Associated Press in an interview Monday in this southern
ranching town.

But the insurgents known as FARC are "calling on the Colombian people - the
labor unions, student groups, organizations of the unemployed and others -
to protest Clinton's visit," Mr. Paris added.

Mr. Paris said a $1.3 billion U.S. anti-narcotics aid package for Colombia
recently approved in Washington is "just a smoke screen to promote
imperialist interests," and that the U.S. government aims to exert control
over the Andean region's oil and mineral wealth.

Mr. Clinton's planned one-day visit is intended as a show of support for
President Andres Pastrana and his "Plan Colombia" - a strategy to revive
Colombia's economy and stem the country's booming cocaine and heroin trade
to the United States and Europe.

Security is expected to be extremely tight for Mr. Clinton's brief visit
and meeting with Mr. Pastrana in Cartagena, a Caribbean port. The president
is only scheduled to stay a few hours and will not spend the night in
Colombia, one of the world's most violent countries.

Mr. Paris said FARC rejects Mr. Clinton's visit "because he is coming as
the head of an empire to shore up Plan Colombia, which is only going to
intensify the armed confrontation."

The U.S. aid package will provide battle helicopters and Green Beret
training to support a military push into southern jungles where FARC rebels
and the militias take payoffs to protect peasant drug plots and
traffickers' airstrips and laboratories.

Increased bloodshed is widely expected in the conflict that already claims
thousands of lives a year. The rebels, whom the State Department considers
a terrorist organization, have claimed repeatedly that they are the real
target of the U.S. aid plan.

But U.S. officials insist that Washington is not becoming involved in
Colombia's 36-year civil conflict. They concede, however, that U.S.-trained
troops and equipment will be used against any guerrilla units who try to
block stepped up efforts to eradicate drug crops and destroy labs.