U.S. COMMITS $1 BILLION TO COLOMBIA

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- The United States is committing more than $1 billion to
Colombia's struggle against drug trafficking and armed groups responsible
for drug production.

The move comes as the Colombian government is stumbling politically and the
national police chief who helped smash the Cali cartel and did the most to
win U.S. trust in his country's efforts has stepped down.

The U.S. aid package, likely to total $1.3 billion, plans to rely less on
the 115,000-strong National Police and more on the armed forces. But
retiring police chief Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano and his men never would have
been called upon to lead the counternarcotics fight had Washington not
harbored grave doubts about the fighting ability and human rights record of
the Colombian armed forces.

And President Andres Pastrana, in the middle of his four-year term, is
increasingly under fire after losing key aides, including his interior
minister, chief of staff and chief negotiator with the rebels who have
taken over drug production and made increasing inroads. Public patience
with the president's failure to make a deal with leftist guerrillas who
have been battling the government for decades is wearing thin.

Serrano, 58, was praised by his supporters on Capitol Hill as "the best cop
in the world." He stepped down on Friday, having announced earlier that he
was retiring because "I have been to so many police officers' funerals that
I can't bear another."

About 2,000 police officers have been killed since 1994 in Colombia, which
has a homicide rate about 10 times higher than that of the United States
and, with more than 3,000 abductions in 1999, the highest kidnapping rate
in the world.

But many Colombians are convinced that the drug war is being waged at the
expense of their own security.

"The aggravation of drug trafficking and the armed conflict have translated
into the police directing their priorities to the defense of the state and
its institutions," said Alvaro Camacho, director of the Institute of
Political Studies at the National University.

New antidrug units

Perhaps because of such sentiments, Colombian Defense Minister Luis
Fernando Ramirez applauds Washington's decision to step up its involvement
in Colombia's battle against drugs as "a new beginning."

The strategy underlying the aid package, which President Clinton is
expected to sign next month, calls for greater use of the Colombian armed
forces and a reduced role for the police.

The primary burden of fighting the drug war will now fall on three new
anti-narcotics battalions created with U.S. money and training. Ramirez
recently dismissed any doubts that these new units are ready to do battle
with the leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary units that dominate
the drug trade.

"I see a transition taking place without much trauma," Ramirez said of
Serrano's retirement.

However, Serrano is stepping down as many of the spectacular gains made
against drug trafficking early in his 5 1/2-year tenure have been erased.
Cocaine production has more than doubled despite a U.S.-financed program of
spraying from the air to eradicate coca crops -- a program that is supposed
to expand significantly when U.S. helicopters begin arriving in the next
few months.

Serrano's personal popularity had dissolved much of the discontent over
lawlessness and bolstered U.S. confidence in Colombia's ability to fight
its end of the narcotics war, which is fed by drug use and addiction in the
U.S.

The general led the raids that smashed the Cali cartel and imprisoned
scores of other drug traffickers on Washington's most-wanted list. He also
dismissed 11,400 of his own officers, turning what had been a corrupt and
often brutal force into a tough and trim fighting unit that the United
States cultivated as a welcome alternative to an incompetent army and the
cartel-financed presidency of Ernesto Samper, Pastrana's predecessor.

'Less charismatic'

As Serrano's successor, Pastrana has named Gen. Luis Ernesto Gilibert, 57.
The grandson of a French police officer sent to Colombia in 1891 to
organize the National Police, Gilibert has a personal commitment to the
institution that is unquestioned, but was described by a European diplomat
in Bogota as being "more cautious and less charismatic" than Serrano.

At least at first, Frechette predicted, "there will be adjustment pains"
for the Drug Enforcement Administration in adapting to a different
operating style under Gilibert, "who is very competent but doesn't know how
to handle Americans as Serrano did."

Since his appointment was announced, Gilibert has made it clear he wants
the police force to concentrate more on making Colombians feel more secure
at home, at work and on the streets. The implication is that there will be
less of a focus on the fight against drug trafficking, Gilibert recently
told reporters.

"That doesn't mean we are going to forget about this theme," he said. "But
at these moments there are other priorities."