COLOMBIA ULTRA-RIGHT WARLORD TALKS OF U.S. COVERT OPS

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's most-feared death squad leader has
alleged that U.S. anti-narcotics agents sought to enlist his outlaw
paramilitary gang to combat drug traffickers, raising fresh fears of
U.S. covert operations in this war-torn Andean nation.

In a television interview late Wednesday, Carlos Castano, leader of
the 5,000-member, ultra-right United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia
(AUC), said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) asked him
to force Colombian drug traffickers to surrender to U.S. justice.

The plan, he said, was also a way of eroding the economic mainstay of
powerful Marxist rebel factions, whom U.S. and Colombian authorities
accuse of funding a long-running uprising with proceeds from the
booming cocaine and heroin trade.

In Washington on Thursday, the DEA declined to comment on the
allegations, which came less than two months after U.S. Congress
approved a record $1.3 billion package of mostly military aid to help
Colombia fight the drug trade and guerrillas.

``The (U.S.) DEA...sent me a message and through that there was a
possibility of ending narco-trafficking in Colombia,'' Castano said
Wednesday, speaking with RCN television in his stronghold in northern
Cordoba province.

``I received a call saying the DEA was opening the doors so that
Colombian drug traffickers could surrender to U.S. justice and ... it
needed a significant force in Colombia that would induce these people
to take that decision,'' added the ultra-right warlord, who swapped
his trademark combat fatigues for a white knitted sweater and drab
green pants.

At a news conference in Washington, State Department spokesman Richard
Boucher said State Department officials had ''no intention of
soliciting his (Castano's) help'' but did not address claims against
the DEA.

US Covert Operations

Some U.S. officials have accused Castano of funding his anti-guerrilla
crusade with drug money and insist he has heavy backing from the
military in his ``dirty war'' against suspected leftist sympathizers.
In practice, however, President Andres Pastrana has done little to
track him down.

The RCN interview with Castano coincided with a visit to Colombia by a
high-level U.S. delegation, including White House anti-drug chief
Barry McCaffrey and Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering.
President Clinton plans to visit Colombia on Aug. 30.

The U.S. aid package has fueled fears that Washington could be dragged
deep into Colombia's civil conflict that has cost 35,000 lives in just
the last 10 years. Castano's comments renewed suspicion that U.S.
agencies have been carrying out secret operations behind the back of
the Colombian government and the U.S. Congress.

``There are serious concerns about the nature of the U.S. engagement
and fears about covert operations and escalating paramilitary
activity,'' said Winifred Tate, Colombia specialist at the
non-governmental Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).

Allegations, though hard to prove, about U.S. covert operations in
Colombia are not new.

DEA agents were suspected of forging a covert alliance linking the
Cali drug cartel, Castano's paramilitary gunmen and Colombian security
forces to combat Pablo Escobar's Medellin cocaine cartel in the late
1980s and early 1990s.

Washington-based Human Rights Watch has also accused U.S. military
intelligence officials of helping Colombia set up the forerunners of
today's illegal paramilitary groups in the late 1960s and early 1970s.