CLINTON ANNOUNCES VISIT TO COLOMBIA

EDGARTOWN, Mass., Aug. 4 - One month after promising $1.3 billion to help
Colombia in its war on drugs, President Clinton said today that he will
visit the country to support its efforts to crack down on drug production.

"I am pleased to announce I will travel on Aug. 30 to Colombia to meet with
President Andres Pastrana and to personally underscore America's support
for Colombia's efforts to seek peace, fight illicit drugs, build its
economy and deepen democracy," Clinton said in a statement.

He said House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Sen. Joseph R. Biden
Jr. (D-Del.) will join him.

Clinton's visit to the Andean nation--scarred by a long-running war
involving communist guerrillas, ultra-right death squads, state security
forces and cocaine traffickers--will be the first by a U.S. president since
George Bush's visit in 1990.

The trip will mark a high point in U.S.-Colombian relations. Under
Pastrana's predecessor, ties between the two nations sank to an all-time
low when Washington blacklisted Colombia as a pariah state over allegations
that then-president Ernesto Samper had funded his 1994 election campaign
with drug money.

Colombian media reported that Clinton's visit is likely to last only a few
hours and will be restricted to the coastal resort of Cartagena.

Clinton said he has signed a directive ordering an intensified effort to
aid "Plan Colombia"--Pastrana's plan to build a better future for his country.

"The Presidential Decision Directive complements and supports the $1.3
billion assistance package that I requested from Congress, and that
Democrats and Republicans passed in a bipartisan spirit last month,"
Clinton said.

The aid, including 60 helicopters to help deploy U.S.-trained army
battalions, will back Pastrana's broad strategy to crack down on drug
production, provide peasants with alternative crops, negotiate peace with
leftist guerrillas and stimulate economic growth.

Congress imposed a limit of 500 U.S. troops and 300 civilian contractors
that can be in Colombia at any time. But the law allows the president to
waive that cap for 90 days in the event of an "imminent involvement" of
U.S. forces in hostilities.