SALVADORANS BALK AT AMERICAN PLAN TO USE AIRPORT

SAN SALVADOR -- The United States has touched a nerve in El Salvador
by seeking to set up a military logistics point for its war on drugs
in a country where American advisers, intelligence and money not long
ago helped fuel a devastating civil war.

The Salvadoran government agreed in March to allow American
reconnaissance planes to use a military portion of the nation's
international airport at Comalapa for refueling and maintenance as
part of a regional network to monitor the routes used to smuggle drugs
from South America to the United States.

But the agreement has become caught up in a larger debate over the
role of the military here -- both El Salvador's own and that of the
United States -- in fighting organized crime and drug trafficking in a
country where murder, kidnapping and drug-related crime have become
hallmarks of life since the peace accords ended the civil war eight
years ago.

The crime wave has increased pressures for the Salvadoran military,
which for years before and during the civil war was used as a
political repression force, to play a role in shoring up domestic
security, something the country's new constitution forbids. At the
same time, the encroaching role of the United States is seen by some
as infringing on national sovereignty.

Approval of the accord has been held up in the National Assembly by
members of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or F.M.L.N.,
the political party of the former guerrillas who were sworn enemies of
many American policymakers during the 1980's, when El Salvador's civil
war became part of the larger hostilities of the cold war.

Supporters of the accord say the American presence now would help
deter the drug trade that has increasingly relied on routes along El
Salvador's Pacific coast and helped fuel an explosion in crack cocaine
use and related crime.

Legislators from the F.M.L.N., who form the largest single bloc in the
Assembly, say the accord turns over to the United States monitoring
and enforcement tasks that rightly belong to El Salvador's own police
and military. In addition, the 10-year renewable agreement, they say,
is too broad and does not guarantee that the American role will not
grow.

"To have a United States base here would be a provocation because our
democracy is not yet mature," said Blanca Flor Bonilla, an F.M.L.N.
legislator and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. "The democracy
we started with the peace accords is weak. There are fears in military
terms."

American officials say they do not consider the facility a base, since
it would not have barracks, commissaries or other features of a
permanent military installation. But they acknowledge that it would be
a linchpin of the American government's anti-narcotics strategy after
the closing last year of Howard Air Force Base in Panama, which
handled in its day some 2,000 counternarcotics flights per year.

Existing facilities in Ecuador, Aruba and Curacao have been used to
fill the gap left by Howard's closing and have about 15 ground support
personnel stationed at each, with crews and aircraft rotating through
in short-term stays.

The Americans carry side-arms as part of regular security measures,
but officials have insisted that they keep a low-profile and not take
part in on-the-ground operations or make arrests. Any information
about drugs entering other countries is passed on to local authorities
for them to make arrests and seizures, American officials say.

American officials have favored the facilities because they cost less
to operate than a full base: about $18 million a year versus $75.8
million a year at Howard. And spreading the facilities over the
Caribbean and Central and South America, they say, has allowed for
greater coverage than when the planes flew from the single base in
Panama.

The new facilities, which in military parlance are known as forward
operating locations, reflect a deeper change in American relations
with countries in the region.

"When we had Panama, it was a crutch for us," said an administration
official. "We could do whatever we wanted and not worry about working
with other countries. This F.O.L. prepares us for the reality in the
region that there are problems we can no longer handle by ourselves."

But seeking that aid has proved tricky in Central America, where the
United States was deeply involved in trying to turn back leftist
insurgencies in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala through the 1980's.

Discussions with the Costa Rican government over locating a facility
there failed earlier this year. Salvadoran officials offered to place
a facility here, saying they wanted to contribute to regional
security. But they also believed it would help them combat their own
problems of drug abuse and crime.

El Salvador has seen an explosion in crack consumption over the last
15 years as traffickers started paying their Salvadoran accomplices in
cocaine, rather than cash. Salvadoran authorities say that seizures of
cocaine have increased, including the discovery of nearly 800 pounds
aboard a private plane in June.

"The reality is the narco-traffickers have so much money that they
have technology that, due to our limited resources, we could never
have," said Jose Antonio Almendariz, a legislator of the National
Conciliation Party and president of the Assembly's Defense Committee.

"The United States has that technology," he said. "Yet there are
people who say, 'Why do you have to use our few resources to help the
United States fight drugs that are heading there?' That might have
been true 10 years ago, but we see consumption in our own country."

Opponents of the accord worry that it fails to specify the number of
American troops allowed here. They also bristle at general references
that allow American personnel access to any government institutions
needed to carry out their mission.

Rodrigo Avila, the nation's former chief of police who is now a
legislator, countered that the accord presented no such threat.

"This is a support operation and not about war or anybody coming here
with tanks," said Mr. Avila, a member of the Nationalist Republican
Alliance party, or Arena.

"I am not in agreement that U.S. troops should come in here and do
what they want, but that is not in the spirit of the accord."

American officials acknowledge that the agreement is broad, but they
say that it needs to be flexible in case troops have to move elsewhere
quickly or need equipment or supplies not readily available here.

The F.M.L.N. has indicated that it may support the agreement if
changes are made and, if not, insists that it can block it. But even
that is uncertain since lawmakers have yet to determine if the accord
is a routine matter that requires a simple majority to pass or a
treaty, which would need a three-quarters majority of the congress.
The F.M.L.N. has enough votes to deny a three-quarters vote, but it
could not stop a simple majority.

While a selling point of the American facility has been its possible
help in reducing crime, observers say it is unclear how much of an
impact it would actually have. Others criticize the government for
seeking outside logistical help from the United States before first
addressing issues like police corruption and judicial inefficiency at
home.

In recent weeks, a presidential commission has been investigating
police involvement in crimes like robbery and kidnapping, and recently
submitted a list of 216 officers for expulsion.

"The first thing the country should do is improve public security
organizations," said Abraham Abrego of the Foundation for Studies on
the Application of Law.

But for El Salvador, the larger issue is what role the military should
play in addressing internal security after a dozen years in which it
took part in a war that left some 60,000 Salvadorans dead.

The military is currently conducting joint patrols with the police in
rural areas, and the head of the police recently called for American
support with helicopters and flight crews for 15-day operations
against drug traffickers and organized crime.

Opinion polls show support for some of these measures in the face of
growing insecurity.