HELP COLOMBIA NOW

A person getting mugged doesn't want to hear that help may be on the
way. Yet that's the signal the United States is sending to Colombia as
that nation grapples with perhaps its worst emergency in history.

Colombia, a close U.S. ally and one of the oldest democracies in Latin
America, is fighting a growing battle with armed rebels, drug
traffickers and an ailing economy.

The United States Senate, though, is pulling a modern-day equivalent
of fiddling while Rome burns. It has taken a sound, emergency-aid
package that President Bill Clinton proposed for Colombia in January
on a rhetorical parade. That could delay its approval for several months.

The aid wouldn't help much at year's end or later. Colombia needs it
now. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, the main obstacle, should get
off the dime and champion the issue. The U.S. House of Representatives
approved its version in March.

The situation has turned particularly serious because the Clinton
administration, believing that lawmakers would respond quickly to the
situation's urgency, accelerated its spending of already-approved aid
for Colombia. As money runs short and anti-drug-enforcement efforts
slow, even more cocaine and other drugs could flood the streets of
Florida and the rest of America.

Already eradication of coca, the plant used to produce cocaine, has
been cut by half; farmers are planting more coca; and new projects to
replace coca are on hold.

The $1.3 billion emergency-aid package would blunt the illegal-drug
thrust and complement Colombia's own efforts, which amount to many
times the U.S. contribution.

Colombia can't succeed on its own, however, and it shouldn't have to.
The illegal-drug problem is, after all, a regional concern. The United
States shoulders a big part of the blame because of its immense,
domestic demand for drugs and, thus, has a responsibility to shape a
solution.

New aid would expand anti-drug training for Colombia's military,
provide needed equipment such as helicopters, bolster that nation's
detection capabilities, restore eradication efforts and expand
alternatives for coca farmers.

It also would help beef up Colombia's judicial system and promote
peace talks between the government and rebels.

In other words, the plan would deliver a lot of bang for the
bucks.

But because of Senate inaction, no one is hearing any bang -- except
that of rebel and drug-trafficker guns and those of the Colombian government.

Mr. Lott says he supports the president's aid proposal. But Mr. Lott's
refusal to treat the aid plan as an emergency measure has doomed it to
a lengthy Senate review.

In part, Mr. Lott may be responding to Senate critics who wonder if
the aid package offers the best approach. Who knows?

Fact is, though, it's the best one going right now. Every day senators
dally, the problems in Colombia worsen. Senators had better get
moving, before Colombia slips down the tubes.