COLOMBIA DEATH SQUAD CHIEF SAYS U.S. ASKED FOR HELP

BOGOTA, Colombia - The leader of Colombia's outlaw ultra-right death squads
said he had received a message, via one of his collaborators, from U.S.
anti-drug agents requesting his help in wiping out the drug trade.

In an interview with RCN television, Carlos Castano, feared leader of the
paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), denied meeting
U.S. officials in person but said he had warned drug traffickers that he
would target them if they did not cease their illicit smuggling operations.

"A cattle rancher came to me with some information saying he had a friend
who was a narco-trafficker and had been talking to the (U.S.) Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) and they had sent me a message and through
that there was a possibility of ending narco-trafficking in Colombia,"
Castano said.

"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 Castano.

The right-wing warlord controls a force of some 5,000 fighters blamed for
massacring thousands of civilians in the course of Colombia's long-running
conflict that has claimed 35,000 lives in just the last 10 years.

His comments could not immediately be confirmed with U.S. authorities.

The U.S. Congress approved a record $1.3 billion package of mostly military
aid to help Colombia fight the drug trade and Communist rebels, the bitter
rivals of Castano's AUC.

TOP-LEVEL US VISIT

The RCN interview coincided with a visit to Colombia's Caribbean coast
resort of Cartagena by a high-level U.S. delegation including U.S.
Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering and the White House's top
anti-drug official Barry McCaffrey.

President Clinton is himself due to visit Cartagena on Aug. 30, the first
visit to Colombia by a U.S. president since George Bush in 1990.

In the two hour-interview late Wednesday, Castano rejected suggestions U.S.
officials had offered him money or weaponry in return for forcing
narco-traffickers to surrender.

In the past, U.S. authorities, including the DEA, have accused Castano's
paramilitary force of smuggling cocaine and heroin and using the proceeds
to fund its fight against the guerrillas. Castano has admitted receiving
contributions from drug capos but insisted he was "an enemy of drugs."

"I could not ask for U.S. aid when (U.S. officials) are always accusing us
of financing ourselves with drug trafficking," Castano said.

NO DIRECT CONTACT WITH DEA

Castano said he did not know if the request for the assistance of his
paramilitary force was a U.S. policy or a personal request by a handful of
agents acting without government authorization.

"I have never had (direct) contact with members of the State Department or
any U.S. intelligence agencies. ... I have no proof that this was a policy
of the DEA or the U.S. administration or just some individuals within those
agencies," he explained.

It was not clear whether Castano had responded to the U.S. request for his
help but he conceded he had threatened some drug traffickers whom he
considered had close ties with Marxist guerrilla groups.

"(I told the traffickers) that sooner or later U.S. support in the fight
against (guerrilla) subversion and the AUC's anti-subversive fight would
eventually target them," he added.

Both Colombian and U.S. authorities have accused the country's estimated
22,000 guerrilla fighters of funding their uprising with millions of
dollars a year in profits from the drug trade.