COLOMBIAN ANTI-DRUG SQUAD TAKES AIM

Foreign Policy: A U.S-trained Battalion Conducts Live Fire
Exercises.

TRES ESQUINAS, Colombia-Rockets,morters and machine gun fire lit up a
patch of Colombia's southern jungles Thursday as White House drug czar
Barry McCaffrey witnessed the opening of a new chapter in the war on
drugs.

McCaffrey, in Colombia to promote a $1.6 billion anti-narcotics aid
package, squinted into a green expanse where troops from a new,
U.S.-trained, anti-drug battalion conducted a live-fire exercise.

As soldiers in foxholes lobbed shells into the trees, a U.S.-donated
helicopter slammed a rocket at imaginary guerrilla columns.

Following the exercise, McCaffrey, a retired general and Vietnam War
hero, addressed some of the soldiers.

"You are the ones Colombia has asked to step forward. Good luck,
troops," he said to enthusiastic applause.

Training and equipping new Colombian battalions such as the 950-man
unit based at Tres Esquinas, 250 miles south of Bogota, is the
centerpiece of Washington's strategy for stemming an explosion of
cocaine and heroin production. More than half of the aid package now
before the U.S. Congress would go toward creating two new battalions
such as the one already up and running, and providing the army and air
force with 63 helicopters.

Critics say the plan could embroil the United States in a brutal,
decades-old civil conflict reminiscent of those fought in Central
America during the 1980s. Leftist rebels control vast tracts of
southern jungle, financing their insurgency by protecting drug
traffickers and taxing peasants who grow drug crops.

Human rights groups, meanwhile, charge Washington is allying itself
with a military of dubious credentials. They say the Colombian armed
forces work in concert with right wing paramilitary militias who
massacre alleged guerrilla sympathizers and are also involved in the
drug trade.

In Washington on Thursday, the plan drew a mixed reaction at a Senate
hearing, with lawmakers questioning whether the money would have its
intended effect.

"The more the administration spends in Colombia, the more coca is
grown," said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. and chairman of the foreign
operations subcommittee.

The base at Tres Esquinas will be the command post for a major push
into the surrounding jungles.

The U.S. military presence in Colombia fluctuates between 150 and 200
uniformed personnel on any given day, the U.S. Embassy says, and none
are allowed to accompany Colombians into combat.

Cocaine production here has more than doubled since 1995. Colombia
produces 90 percent of the world's supply and also produces heroin.