U.S. Says Colombia Rebels Awash in Drug Money

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - U.S. anti-drug czar Barry McCaffrey said on
Wednesday that $500 million a year in drug money is going to rebels in
Colombia and fueling ``unbelievable'' violence and ``enormous'' suffering.

McCaffrey, a retired general who heads the White House anti-drug
effort, was in Mexico where he defended the Clinton administration
budget request to Congress for $1.3 billion in military assistance to
help fund a two-year campaign against the drug trade and its allies in
southern Colombia.

The bulk of the funds, which Congress is expected to approve, will go
to buy helicopters for mobile battalions trained to take on the
leftist guerrillas if they block Colombian police action to destroy
drug crops and labs.

The new money would add to $150 million a year in U.S. anti-drug
assistance, and would complement a $7.5 billion plan proposed by
Colombian President Andres Pastrana to eradicate drug production,
promote alternative crops, negotiate peace and pull Colombia out of a
deep recession.

McCaffrey said other countries in the region had an obligation to help
the Colombian government. ``Colombia is in trouble,'' he said. ``The
violence is unbelievable, they've lost control of 40 percent of their
land area. The suffering is enormous. The economy is terrible.''

Eighty percent of the cocaine consumed in the United States and most
of the heroin comes from Colombia.

U.S. law enforcement officials say drug production has soared in the
south where the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
has fought the government for almost four decades and now controls
vast areas.

McCaffrey said the guerrilla's drug wealth was evident in their
equipment -- brand new uniforms, new machine guns, helicopters,
aircraft and high-tech wire-tapping systems.

But he expressed support for the Colombian government in its two-front
battle against insurgents and drug traffickers. ''Fortunately what
isn't lacking in Colombia is political will, what isn't lacking in
Colombia is courage,'' he said after delivering a speech in Mexico
City.

McCaffrey said the guerrillas could not win at the ballot box. But
their fight to overthrow the government was being aided by ``a huge
amount of money'' from drugs.

``If it was just kidnapping, just bank robberies, just extortion, just
blowing up the oil pipelines, that would be one level of problem. Add
in let's say $500 million a year ... that's the suffering that's going
on in Colombia. They're really in a very perilous situation and we
ought to stand with them.''

Some Democrats in Congress worry that deepening U.S. military
involvement in Colombia is a foreign policy mistake, and that
additional aid for military solutions will only worsen the rebel
conflict in which 35,000 people have died in the past 10 years.