COLOMBIANS PREPARE COCA FARM OFFENSIVE

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 also local officials.

Colombian army troops, trained by Green Berets and other U.S. Special
Forces, will be flown into the jungles of Putumayo province on board
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 that beefing up the military and undercutting
rebel drug proceeds will strengthen peace negotiations with the
insurgents. But that argument 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 that 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 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, even murdering their opponents.

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.