ALBRIGHT VISITS COLOMBIA AS PART OF POLICY SHIFT

(CARTAGENA, Colombia)--- Amid heavy security, Secretary of State
Madeleine K. Albright arrived yesterday for a two-day visit to bolster
President Andres Pastrana and promote an extraordinary request to
Congress for $1.3 billion in aid to Colombia.

Albright became the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Colombia
since 1986. After landing in late afternoon, she headed to a private
dinner with Pastrana and Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Albright's high-profile visit, on the heels of the huge aid request
earlier this week in Washington, marked a dramatic shift in U.S.
policy toward Colombia. The South American country is plagued by two
major leftist rebellions, death squads, and drug gangs that handle an
estimated 80 percent of the cocaine entering the United States.

A spokesman for Colombia's largest rebel group, Raul Reyes, said the
U.S. aid would "increase the war, and make the peace process . . .
more difficult."

Several U.S. analysts dismissed predictions of intensified war,
suggesting the proposed aid could turn the tide in beleaguered Colombia.

"It's a very important signal to all the actors in Colombia that the
United States has made a serious and ongoing commitment to the
nation," said Bernard Aronson, who served as a U.S. diplomat in Latin
America under President George Bush.

U.S. aid to Colombia skyrocketed from about $65 million in 1996 to
$289 million last year. Under the new proposal, Colombia would become
the third-largest recipient of U.S. aid, after Israel and Egypt.

The two-year package calls for creating two antidrug battalions, and
purchasing 30 Black Hawk and 33 Huey helicopters to help the army push
its way into coca-growing regions of southern Colombia controlled by
guerrillas.

Additional aid would go for radar, antidrug intelligence-gathering,
and increased eradication of coca and poppy crops. About one-sixth of
the package is intended to help Colombian farmers find alternatives to
coca, to strengthen the judiciary, and to promote a peace process
between the Colombian government and rebel groups.

Pastrana, 45, has made a negotiated settlement with the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia a cornerstone of his 17-month-old government.
Formal talks with the insurgency began Oct. 24.

While the proposed U.S. aid would bolster Pastrana, it also carries
potential drawbacks, a political scientist at Georgia State
University, Jennifer McCoy, said.

"The risks are, obviously, involving the [Colombian] military more in
the drug fight," she said. "You have increased possibilities of
corruption."