DRUG WAR FOUGHT WITH DOSES OF CASH

Colombia will be getting $1.3 billion from the U.S., but there are fears of
being drawn into a civil war.

Tres Esquinas, Colombia- The flood-swollen Orteguaza River slices through
the Colombian lowlands, its dirty brown water straining at banks that give
way to swampy clumps of thick forest and patches of cleared land.

Bright green coca plants and poppy fields dot many of the clearings, verdant
cash crops in a land of hunger and war.

This remote territory in Colombia's far south has become ground zero in the
escalating conflict against narcotics traffickers, and Marxist rebels who
have tapped the trade as a major source of revenue to fuel their 36-year-old
insurgency.

Much of the cocaine and heroin grown here is destined for the United States,
which recently approved a $1.3 billion aid package to help Colombia fight
its drug war. Colombian pilots will fly a fleet of 60 U.S.-supplied
helicopters, providing security and transporting forces to wipe out remote
drug laboratories and fumigate illicit crops from low-flying crop dusters.

But for all the high-tech U.S. weaponry, the Amazonian headwaters of
southern Colombia are a primitive, hostile region. There are few towns,
fewer roads and thousands of square miles of dense green growth perfect for
hiding illegal operations --- and enemies. The muddy brown streams are ideal
for transporting contraband.

"The rivers are the superhighways here," said Gen. Mario Montoya, head of a
new Colombian anti-narcotics task force. "They carry everything they need
for the production of cocaine on those rivers. Ten years ago, there was very
little coca here, but today this area has the highest concentration of coca
production in the world."

Stepping back from quagmire

Critics fear the jungle --- and Colombia's tortured landscape of leftist
guerrillas, right-wing paramilitary groups, drug barons, a questionable
military and rancorous domestic politics --- may swallow up the American
aid, drawing the U.S. further into a quagmire.

"We have made a profound and dramatic shift in focus from supporting a
police force in a friendly country to supporting an army engaged in a civil
war," said Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) shortly after Congress approved the
aid package. "I wonder how long it will be until we read the first news
story of some of this equipment showing up in the hands of rebels."

U.S. officials insist the aid is strictly for fighting drugs, not to help
Colombia fight its civil war. But Montoya admits that in the remote wilds,
the two are often intertwined.

"The FARC, with all its guns and all its evil, is involved in the drug
trade," he said, referring to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia,
the nation's largest and oldest guerrilla group. "If the guerrillas are
involved in drug trafficking, as we know they are, we're going to attack
them."

Colombia, a nation of 39 million, supplies an estimated 80 percent of the
world's cocaine. It is also a growing source of heroin. Both drugs are worth
billions of dollars on the streets of America and Europe.

There are no accurate figures on how much the country's guerrillas gain by
taking a cut from the poor farmers who grow the crops and the traffickers
who process and smuggle it, but some Colombian newspapers have cited figures
in the hundreds of millions.

With the guerrillas and drug lords so powerful, Colombian President Andres
Pastrana stunned the nation 18 months ago by starting peace talks with the
FARC. To show his goodwill, he ordered Colombian troops out of a
Switzerland-sized chunk of the nation that has become de facto FARC
territory.

But the peace talks have since stumbled without much real progress, and
Pastrana's popularity has plummeted. Many Colombians fear he has given the
guerrillas too much without getting anything in return.

"The guerrillas are terribly strong because they have so much money from
drug trafficking," said Eduardo Gomez, who retired from the Colombian
military and now works in Bogota, the capital. "We have no confidence in our
institutions. The money from the U.S. will be wasted, because our army, our
police and our government are corrupt."

Estimates on FARC strength range from 17,000 to 22,000 soldiers in the
field, but they are only one of the warring forces in Colombia. Another
guerrilla group, the Army of National Liberation or ELN, has some 5,000
soldiers, while right-wing paramilitary groups, which also take tribute from
drug traffickers, have an estimated 7,000 troops.

Problems include political corruption

Colombia's military --- the army, air force and navy --- has about 120,000
personnel. It also has a reputation for corruption and human-rights abuses,
with many observers citing close ties between army officers and the
paramilitaries.

Pastrana has named his bold new strategy for saving the country "Plan
Colombia." The U.S. aid --- which will mostly fund military equipment, but
also provides money for crop substitution and other social programs --- will
be supplemented by more than $600 million for social programs that Pastrana
recently obtained from European nations.

Midway through his four-year term in office, however, Pastrana has been
hamstrung by a corruption scandal and bitter relations with the national
congress. He recently appealed to Colombians to be more positive, saying,
"I'm tired of the bad news that does not let us see and construct a better
country for all."

But it will take more than a positive attitude to vanquish Colombia's
problems.

"We feel that Plan Colombia will escalate the war on both sides," said Marco
Alberto Romero, a political scientist at Colombia's National University. "If
the guerrillas resist this first campaign, the logic will be that the U.S.
will increase its aid and become more committed to the Colombian conflict.
It's a very complicated problem."

Romero believes the focus should be on providing more opportunity for the
rural peasants who grow the coca and poppy. The peasants now have no
alternatives, and wiping out their only cash crop by fumigation could foul
the environment, sicken the poor farmers and create a new wave of internal
displacement within Colombia.

"This could have regional consequences," he said. "The drug trafficking
affects the whole Andean region. This could lead to the breakdown of the
peace talks in Colombia, but also could trigger an arms race. Already both
(the FARC and the government) are building up their forces even as they are
participating in the peace talks."

On the front lines, Montoya downplays the criticism and confidently predicts
victory.

During a recent briefing for reporters, complete with slides, tapes of radio
conversations among drug traffickers and maps laying out the alignment of
forces, Montoya said the new U.S. aid --- especially a fleet of about 30
sophisticated Blackhawk helicopters --- will tip the balance in favor of his
3,000-man force in the southern region.

"Once we get the helicopters, we can really go to work," he said. "They will
give us the element of surprise and mobility. We will move in and
immediately neutralize the crops."

Boats patrolling the rivers to intercept cocaine shipments, as well as the
supplies of gasoline, cement and chemicals needed to convert the coca leaves
into cocaine, will augment the force.

The only role for U.S. troops --- no more than a few hundred at a time ---
will be to train the Colombian pilots and soldiers, and help operate
sophisticated surveillance equipment the United States will send, he
insisted.

There are reports that the guerrillas may have --- or will soon obtain ---
surface-to-air missiles or other advanced weapons to shoot down the
helicopters. Critics also warn that the drug farmers and traffickers will
simply move elsewhere once the Colombian offensive picks up steam.

But Montoya remains upbeat.

"These groups will try to defend their operations because there is lots and
lots of money involved in narco-trafficking," he said. "But we're prepared
militarily for this fight. We're in this for the long haul."

Mike Williams is based in Miami as a correspondent for Cox News Service.

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