US SOLDIERS TO HELP GUATEMALA IN WAR ON DRUGS

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) Lawmakers have voted to allow the U.S. Army
to send about 40 soldiers with military hardware to join Guatemalan
narcotics agents.

After three hours of heated debate, senators from both of Guatemala's
leading parties backed a measure late Thursday night that had been
pushed by Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo and U.S. Ambassador
Prudence Bushnell.

In addition to the soldiers, who will serve as advisers and provide
logistical support, the United States will offer three helicopters and one
naval vessel. No date has been set for the aid to arrive.

According to the measure, all U.S. personnel are required to be
accompanied at all times by Guatemalan soldiers or police.

The legislation passed overwhelmingly despite the objections
of many Guatemalans who criticized it as an affront to the country's
sovereignty. Liberal lawmakers who opposed the measure recalled a
CIA-supported coup which deposed democratically elected socialist
President Jacobo Arbenz in 1954. "The Americans asked permission to
'aid' Guatemalan soldiers then too," said Sen. Ricardo Rosales. But
Portillo and other officials have complained of Guatemala's growing
reputation as a transfer point for Colombian and Peruvian cocaine
heading to the United States.

"This is something that is in the interest of Guatemala and the U.S.,"
Frank Neville, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City,
said Friday. "Drug trafficking is certainly a shared regional danger and
it is always best to approach these things together."