BIG GUNS BACK AID TO COLOMBIA

Well-financed U.S. lobby seeks relief from drug wars

Nothing in Washington ever happens in a vacuum. And the Clinton
administration's recent proposal to give Colombia $1.3 billion in aid to
help combat drug trafficking is no exception.

For almost a year, a business consortium of blue-chip multinationals has
been pressing the White House and Capitol Hill for such a package. The
assistance, the companies say, is needed to help the war-torn Latin American
country beat back a growing illegal drug trade that is making it difficult
to do business.

Through the U.S.-Colombia Business Partnership -- founded in 1996 to
represent U.S. companies with interests in Colombia -- the Occidental
Petroleum Corp., the Enron Corp., BP Amoco, the Colgate-Palmolive Co., and
others played an important part in pressing the administration and Congress
for the aid. The business partnership is now actively pushing the Clinton
initiative.

"Right now, you see a confluence of interests," says Lawrence Meriage,
Occidental's vice president for public affairs and the company's point man
on Colombia. "The members [of Congress] expressed concern about drugs, and
from our perspective here, they are certainly disruptive of any normal
business relationship."

Occidental, which claims that a company oil project in Colombia has lost
$100 million since 1995 because of terrorist activity, formally made its
case last week. Meriage testified before the House Government Reform
Subcommittee on Drug Policy. The hearing also featured White House drug czar
Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the head of the U.S. Southern Command, three
high-ranking administration officials, and two former ambassadors -- all of
whom testified in favor of the aid.

Occidental, which is taking the lead, and the other members of the
consortium "are really appreciative of what we are doing in getting rid of
the narco-traffickers," says McCaffrey spokesman Robert Weiner. "It is going
to mean that all of their businesses are going to flourish."

Other U.S. companies will also see a jump in their bottom line if the aid
package goes through.

Of the $1.3 billion package, the largest chunk is earmarked for helicopter
purchases. The United States would buy 30 Black Hawks, at a total cost of
more than $360 million, from the Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., a subsidiary of
the United Technologies Corp. In addition, Bell Helicopter Textron Inc.
stands to earn about $66 million from the sale of 33 Hueys.

The size of the aid package -- and the emphasis on military equipment -- is
raising concerns among human rights advocates.

>From their perspective, the aid plan is misguided. Instead of pulling up
stakes and setting up business elsewhere, they note, members of the business
partnership are pushing the U.S. government to stem the violence that is
making it difficult for their businesses to thrive in the region. That type
of involvement, human rights advocates claim, will ensnare the United States
in the bloody Colombian civil war that has raged 40 years.

"There is increasingly multinational investment in very conflicted areas
where there is heavy paramilitary violence and evidence that it is supported
by the Colombian military," says Winifred Tate, a Colombia expert in the
Washington Office of Latin America, a liberal interest group that advocates
for human rights in Latin America.

Some conservatives who support the aid package have different concerns. They
question why the administration has stocked the package with so many of the
costly Black Hawks, which cost seven times more than Bell Helicopter's
Hueys.

Sikorsky, based in Stratford, Conn., is in the district of Rep. Sam
Gejdenson, the ranking member of the House International Relations
Committee. Connecticut is also home to Sen. Christopher Dodd, the ranking
member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Narcotics.

Some of these Republicans wonder whether the administration chose Sikorsky's
Black Hawks, in part, to gain the support of the company's powerful
home-state Democrats -- politicians who have traditionally opposed such
military-type aide to foreign countries.

Former Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-N.Y.), who is pitching in to help his old
colleagues lobby to pass the plan, says gaining the support of Dodd and
Gejdenson was "absolutely crucial." While he feels that the two Democrats
genuinely believe in the anti-drug plan, Solomon says that appealing to a
member's home state loyalties is a common tactic.

"Let's face it, any time you are dealing with an issue like this, and you
are talking about hardware and jobs in your district, it makes a difference
certainly," he says. "Sure they are trying to give them more incentive to
make them a stronger supporter. It's all part of the game."

Sikorsky's parent company, United Technologies, has given significantly to
both members. Since 1997, Gejdenson has received $19,000 and Dodd has taken
in $33,200 from the company, according to the Center for Responsive
Politics.

Spokesmen for Dodd and Gejdenson, who opposed military intervention in Latin
America during the 1980s, said that neither member was influenced by the
selection of a home-state company.

"It is absurd that you can't be supportive of human rights and a peace
process and at the same time acknowledge that this is a serious narcotic
problem that requires us to give adequate equipment and training to the
Colombian police and military who have to fight drug traffickers day after
day," says Dodd spokesman Marvin Fast.

Gejdenson's spokesman echoed that sentiment.

RINGING THE BELL

Bell Helicopter, based in Fort Worth, Texas, claims its own powerful allies
on the Hill.

"The entire Texas Delegation is working this issue," says a company
spokesperson, who declined to be identified.

That includes Rep. Martin Frost, chairman of the Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee, and Republican House members Dick Armey, the majority
leader, and Whip Tom DeLay.

The company also has an outside lobbyist with good Latin American
credentials -- Tony Gillespie, former U.S. ambassador to Colombia, Chile,
and Grenada.

Although the two helicopter manufacturers are both working to get the aid
package approved, their interests are not completely synchronized. Sikorsky
and Bell Helicopter have been waging separate lobbying campaigns in an
attempt to increase their share of the pie.

The sale of 30 or more Black Hawks would be a boon to Sikorsky, which has
orders for only six helicopters from the U.S. Army this year, down from 19
last year, according to defense industry expert Bill Hartung of the World
Policy Institute, a New York think tank affiliated with New School
University.

The company's luck took a fortuitous turn late last year, after Sen. Dodd
traveled to Colombia to meet with that nation's officials to discuss the
administration's aid proposal.

A Dodd spokeswoman says the senator discussed the aid package with the
officials, but did not discuss helicopter purchases specifically. After Dodd
left, the Colombians announced they would buy six Black Hawks on their own.

The streak continued when the Colombian government received support in the
form of financing for the helicopters from the U.S. Export-Import Bank, an
Ex-Im spokesperson said.

The Ex-Im Bank is prohibited by its charter from lending for military
purchases. But the bank was given a special exemption by the State
Department, the spokesperson said.

And recently, Sikorsky got some valuable, free advertising from an unusual
source.

Drug czar McCaffrey opposed giving Black Hawks to Colombia in 1998 -- he
says he thought the United States had not committed to providing enough of
the machines to benefit the country. But he now seems like one of the
helicopter's biggest fans.

"These are the best helicopters in the world. The next time you see me, I'll
probably be peddling them, I hope," McCaffrey cracked at the hearing last
week before the House Subcommittee on Narcotics. McCaffrey's spokesman later
emphasized that the general was kidding and had no plans to work for
Sikorsky.

For Occidental, the military aid comes at a crucial time, following massive
disruption from attacks on its facilities. The company already pays the
Colombian government to keep an army base next to its refinery to protect
against attacks. But, Meriage says, the Colombian government itself needs
help.

"We could not survive in these remote areas without the protection of the
Colombian military," Meriage, the Occidental vice president, says. Meriage
equates the guerrillas to the drug-traffickers -- "the two are inseparable
now," he says -- as does the U.S. government's plan.

TRIBAL TRAUMA

While Occidental has its problems with the guerrillas, an indigenous tribe
in Colombia has its problems with the oil company. Members of the U'Wa say
that the company wants to drill oil -- which they consider sacred -- on
their land. They threaten to commit mass suicide if the company goes through
with its plan. Three U'Wa children reportedly drowned earlier this month
during a demonstration trying to block the drilling, according to Amazon
Watch, a human rights group.

Some human rights activists, including the Amazon Coalition, criticize Vice
President Al Gore Jr. for not backing the tribe and suggest that his
longtime ties to Occidental may be coloring his views of the situation.

"Occidental is the political patron of Al Gore," says Steve Kretzmann, a San
Francisco-based member of the U'Wa Defense Working Group, a human rights
group lobbying Congress on the tribe's behalf.

According to the D.C.-based Center for Public Integrity, Gore's father, the
late Sen. Albert Gore Sr., was a member of Occidental's board and the
company has paid the vice president's family $20,000 a year since the 1960s
for unused mineral rights on his land. Occidental, the center reports, has
also contributed hundreds of thousands to Gore and the Democratic National
Committee.

Gore did not respond to two telephone calls seeking comment.

Drug policy and human rights questions aside, the bottom line for most of
the businesses pushing for the aid package is their own bottom line. "It's
business for us, and we are as aggressive as anybody," said one Bell
Helicopter lobbyist. "I'm just trying to sell helicopters."