COLOMBIAN SEES LIMITS IN U.S. WAR ON DRUGS

BOGOTA, Colombia -- The words were surprising, coming from the hard-nosed
general who has for years been Washington's trusted point man in the war on
drugs in Colombia.

Even more so, as legislation advances in the U.S. Congress to give this
Andean nation about $1 billion more in counternarcotics funds, most of it
will be for military training and hardware.

During a two-hour interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, national
police chief Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano said international counter-drug
efforts should focus as much on stemming drug abuse in the United States
and Europe as destroying drug laboratories and crops in Colombia.

"We'd rather see drug consumption drop than get any of this aid," said
Serrano, 57, who turns in his badge today after 51/2 years heading one of
the world's most embattled police forces.

"If consumption were seriously reduced," he added, "this country could go
back to what it once was, a place that grew coffee, where people worked
hard and sweated for a paycheck."

Instead, Colombia is a nation with a deepening guerrilla conflict,
spiraling drug production, and whose wealthy are taking their families and
money abroad.

The general is stepping down just as Washington embarks on a new -- some
say perilous -- phase in efforts to stem the flow of drugs from this nation
that produces 90 percent of the world's cocaine and a growing share of its
heroin.

In a wood-paneled office in the intelligence headquarters he calls his
"little CIA," the man U.S. officials herald as one of the drug war's
greatest heroes reflected frankly on that struggle's limitations.

Serrano showed a sensitive, contemplative side rarely seen during a career
that brought him fame, national devotion -- and little semblance of a
normal life.

"I haven't been out to a movie theater in 10 years," said Serrano, joking
and looking relaxed in a smart gray suit -- a switch from his usual green
uniform.

Serrano even acknowledged a curiosity about the cocaine he's dedicated his
life to eliminating. "I've thought why don't I snort some myself, if it
makes you feel so great?"

The U.S. funds would finance a Colombian military push into rebel-held
southern jungles, paving the way for stepped-up efforts to fumigate drug
crops and destroy laboratories.

Serrano, who initiated aerial crop destruction as chief of the police
anti-narcotics division in the early 1990s, says he welcomes the U.S. aid
package because it will send a tough message to drug traffickers.

But he cautions that the U.S. assistance may serve only to drive
traffickers to neighboring countries.

While faithfully implementing the U.S-inspired fumigation policy, Serrano
sees his main accomplishments elsewhere.

Serrano purged the police of more than 11,000 corrupt officers and in 1995
dismantled the Cali cocaine cartel, which had corrupted Colombia's
political class to the core.

While failing to dent the outflow of cocaine and heroin, the Cali cartel's
downfall sent drug mafiosos underground, and splintered the trade into
smaller less violent gangs.

In October, Serrano came through again, arresting 30 suspected members of a
major cocaine gang wanted by U.S. authorities. Serrano said he was up all
night before Operation Millennium, nervously watching television in bed,
concerned his men would fail to capture key "narcos" already named in news
releases drafted in Washington.

The general readily credits the CIA and U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration for intelligence, training and money critical to many
successful operations. DEA and CIA agents were usually by his side in the
most high-profile arrests, he said.

Serrano's critics say he put the U.S. counterdrug agenda above Colombia's
critical need for more street cops and a push to combat the world's highest
kidnapping rate. He admits that rural Colombia has become more lawless.

Politics may well be in Serrano's future, but he says all he wants now is a
long vacation.

"I want to take a bit of a break from drug-trafficking, deaths and so much
pressure. I don't want to abuse my good luck," he said.