ALBRIGHT GARNERS SUPPORT FOR COLOMBIA PLAN

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina: U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
traversed Latin America this week, championing democracy and seeking
support for a U.S. drug-fighting effort in Colombia that has prompted
regional concern.

On Friday, Albright wound up a five-day, five-nation visit to the
region. While she talked of trade and maturing democracies throughout
the whirlwind tour, at each stop she expounded on what she sees as the
immediate threat to democracy in the region: the increasing troubles in
Colombia.

Her trip comes ahead of a scheduled one-day visit to Colombia by
President Bill Clinton on Aug. 30, where he is expected to discuss the
$1.3-billion U.S. aid package to strengthen Colombia's fight against
drugs, known as Plan Colombia.

In a region where U.S. involvement, whether military or political, is
often viewed as meddling and intrusive, some in Latin America express
less than full support for the plan.

Following a meeting with Albright in Brazil on Tuesday, the country's
foreign minister, Luiz Felipe Lampreia, said Brazil, the region's
economic giant, was worried about possible spillover effects from
Colombia.

"Brazil has made it very clear that it does not want to get
unilaterally involved in Plan Colombia," said David Fleischer, a
political scientist at the University of Brasilia.

U.S. and Brazilian officials later downplayed the apparent
disagreement, and in Santiago on Thursday, Albright said Brazil was
supportive.

During stops in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Ecuador, Albright made
clear she was seeking political support - not financial backing or
military assistance for the plan. And she received just that from the
countries farthest removed from Colombia's 36-year civil war between
the government and leftist rebels.

Argentina, the strongest U.S. ally in the region, agreed to provide
technical assistance. Neighbouring Chile said it "strongly" supported
the plan, and Foreign Minister Solded Alvear said the plan represented
an effort "to restore peace and fight drugs."

While in the Argentine capital, Albright said the increased focus on
Colombia was part of an effort to strengthen democracy in four
countries saddled with social and political problems - the others being
Indonesia, Nigeria, and Ukraine.

"All of them are complicated, and all of them are very important to the
national interest of the United States as well as their regions," she
said.

Under the initiative, about 100 U.S. military personnel are training
Colombian army anti-narcotics troops. Armed with U.S.-supplied weapons
and helicopters, the Colombians are to seize drug crops from leftist
guerrillas and other armed groups, paving the way for subsequent
eradication by crop-dusters.

But even as Albright shuttled between Latin American capitals pushing
for support of the plan, a poll published Friday in Ecuador, her last
stop in the region, suggested many average Ecuadoreans are concerned.

The public opinion survey, carried in the prominent daily newspaper
Hoy, revealed that 83 per cent of Ecuador's 12 million people fear some
negative consequence from Plan Colombia.

The poll, based on 609 interviews by the firm Datanalisis, said 35.3
per cent of Ecuadoreans expect the plan will provoke conflict with
Colombia's rebel forces. And 46.6 percent predicted the strong
likelihood of guerrilla activity within Ecuadorean territory. The
survey had a margin of error of 2.3 percentage points.

Along Colombia's southern border, Ecuador is already a popular rest and
resupply point for Colombian rebels. And as the conflict heats up,
there is sure to be an increase of displaced Colombians wading across
the river into Ecuador.

Clinton administration officials say the plan includes significant
funding for Colombia's neighbours. At least $20 million in aid has been
earmarked for Ecuador, officials said. (AP)