U.S.-BACKED OFFENSIVE TARGETS DEADLY, COCAINE-RICH JUNGLES

PUERTO ASIS, Colombia -- It was an all too common sight in a region
where leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitary groups battle for
control of the world's biggest cocaine-producing region: a man's body
with a handwritten sign on his back saying he was killed for
collaborating with the guerrillas.

Now, U.S.-trained and equipped troops are entering the lethal
environment as part of a major anti-narcotics offensive that has
alarmed not only coca farmers but local officials and human rights
advocates.

Colombian army troops, trained by Green Berets and other U.S. Special
Forces, will be flown into the jungles of Putumayo province aboard
U.S.-donated Blackhawk and Huey helicopters. Their mission: to seize
coca plantations so that low-flying planes can spray them with
herbicide without being shot down. Thousands are expected to be forced
from their homes.

The government contends beefing up the military and undercutting rebel
drug proceeds will strengthen peace negotiations with the insurgents.
But that logic is lost on many Putumayo officials.

"This is not a plan for peace. It is a plan for war," snapped Manuel
Alzate, mayor of Puerto Asis, a town in the heart of the coca-growing
region. He and other Putumayo officials are trying to persuade the
national government to call off the offensive that forms part of a
$1.3 billion U.S. aid package.

But there is no sign the government is wavering. Meanwhile, rebels of
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, are preparing a
counter-punch.

The FARC -- which observers say earns millions of dollars per week
from a drug protection racket -- is reportedly already giving weapons
training to some coca farmers.

Also involved in the drug trade is a national paramilitary group, the
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, with strong ties to the
Colombian military and many former government soldiers.

The paramilitary force has cut into rebel profits by buying coca paste
- -- the coca derivative used to make cocaine -- from farmers at better
prices than the rebels.

Both groups are notorious human rights violators.

The paramilitary commander for Putumayo, who insisted on being
identified by his nom de guerre, Falcon, casually acknowledges that
his forces commit abuses.

Clad in jeans and a black Armani Exchange T-shirt, Falcon said such
tactics make the paramilitary group a vital component to government
security forces.

"No area of Colombia has been taken by the government without our
presence. We can operate effectively because we don't have the
judicial restraints that are imposed on government forces," Falcon
said in an interview last week at his heavily guarded compound near
Puerto Asis.

Barely an hour after the interview, Associated Press journalists came
across a body on a muddy road outside town.

"They killed me for being a collaborator with the FARC (and) for being
an informant," said a sign placed on the man. Passers-by stared at the
corpse, then quickly moved on.

FARC has also murdered its opponents, and allegedly was behind the
1998 assassination of a Roman Catholic priest in Putumayo.

Few people dare discuss the killings.

"Here it's the law of silence," said a woman vendor at a Puerto Asis
street stall. "Talking can cost you your life."

During daytime, the town bustles. Shops offer expensive tools and
other wares not normally available in rural areas; motor scooters, the
town's favorite mode of transportation, crisscross the streets.

After dusk, Puerto Asis becomes a ghost town.

On the few roads carved through the jungle, rebels or paramilitary
squads suddenly erect roadblocks. Motorists believed to be partial to
the wrong side are sometimes taken away and never heard from again.

It is into this lawless land that the United States is making its
stand against the drug trade and attempting to shore up an embattled
democracy, located only a three-hour flight from Miami.

"This is not East Timor, Kosovo or Sierra Leone," Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State William Brownfield said in an interview in
Washington. "Colombia is one of the larger countries in Latin America.
One would have to be an idiot to argue that Colombia does not have
fundamental importance to us."

About 100 anti-narcotics troops, members of a battalion trained by
U.S. Special Forces, have begun reconnaissance operations in Putumayo.
Under the bill signed by President Clinton, the United States will
train two more battalions and provide 60 combat helicopters.
Full-scale operations are expected within months from the Tres
Esquinas army base, perched on Putumayo's northern border.

Falcon said his forces would not attempt to defend the coca fields.
But some analysts believe the Colombian military may use their
paramilitary allies during the offensive, thus possibly indirectly
linking the U.S. aid to human rights abuses.

"There is concern whether the paramilitaries will be used as some sort
of force, using dirty-war tactics, to clear the guerrillas out of the
area. This is not in the U.S. policy, but it's hard to tell what's
going to happen," said Adam Isacson, an analyst for the
Washington-based Center for International Policy.

For the government troops, finding the coca plantations in Putumayo --
which produces an estimated 600 tons of cocaine per year -- should be
easy. Fields planted with the shiny green shrubs extend to the
outskirts of some towns -- a green ocean that pumps millions of
dollars into an otherwise moribund local economy.

"Coca is a way of survival for us," said Juliberto Rodriguez, 57,
clearing jungle growth to grow more coca on his farm, an hour's ride
by motorized canoe upriver from Puerto Asis.

"Look, there are not even any roads here," he said, pointing with his
machete. "If I had a good alternative, I wouldn't bother with coca."

Even if the U.S.-backed offensive in Putumayo and neighboring
provinces wipes out existing coca crops, the hardy bushes -- which can
be harvested four times a year -- are likely to pop up elsewhere.

"If the helicopters and the troops come, we will have to leave," said
grower Victoriano Tocayo. "But we don't have a place to go, so what
we'll do is head for a more remote area and start growing coca all
over again."