COLOMBIAN ENVOY BECOMES A KEY FIGURE IN AID CONTROVERSY

WASHINGTON -- Last year, Luis Alberto Moreno helped his close friend get
elected president of Colombia.

He now faces what is turning out to be a more complicated task: securing
huge amounts of U.S. aid for his friend's troubled government.

Moreno, who arrived in Washington last year as Colombia's ambassador, is a
key figure in rallying U.S. support for Colombia's military campaign against
drug traffickers and Marxist guerrillas. At the same time, he is pressing
the Clinton administration to support a fledgling peace process with the
rebels.

The 46-year-old diplomat spends his days working the phone and visiting
lawmakers, State Department officials, newspaper editors and human rights
groups. Observers say that Moreno is so intent on educating Washington about
his country that he will bend the ear of congressional staffers,
secretaries, and just about anyone else willing to listen.

"I talk to everyone in the government. The secret is to take everyone
seriously," Moreno said recently.

"I do lunches and breakfasts everyday. I spend a lot of time on Capitol
Hill. And that has paid off tremendously."

As U.S. interest in Colombia has heightened, so has Moreno's profile. Thanks
to his command of English, his intense lobbying, and his close ties to
Colombian President Andres Pastrana, he is often described as one of the
most effective diplomats in town.

"He knows just about every member of Congress that counts," said Robert
White, president of the Center for International Policy, a Washington
research center. "Most Latin American ambassadors are under the illusion
that you only have to talk to the State Department."

Still, it's been a rough few weeks for the Colombian envoy.

Colombia is receiving nearly $300 million in U.S. military assistance this
year, making it the third-largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid after Egypt
and Israel. But the Bogota government wants another $1.5 billion from
Washington over the next three years.

Most of the money would go toward drug interdiction and fighting Colombia's
powerful Marxist guerrillas, who control much of the countryside and are
heavily involved in the narcotics trade.

Partly because of Moreno's efforts, there appears to be bipartisan support
for the initiative. But because of concerns about possible cost overruns in
the 2000 budget, the Clinton administration refused to include the aid
package as part of the overall budget approved last week.

Referring to Moreno, one skeptical congressional staffer said: "Look at his
performance. He got a goose egg."

However, it is widely believed that lawmakers will appropriate around $500
million for Colombia as part of an emergency supplemental bill early next
year. Should that happen, military analysts say, the delay will likely have
little effect for Colombian police and army troops in the field.

The push for Colombian aid "is not over yet," said one U.S. official. "The
issue is how much money and when, not whether" there will be an aid package.

But in Bogota, the Clinton administration's cold-shoulder was front-page
news and was viewed as a blow to Pastrana, who had portrayed himself as a
friend of Washington and a whiz at international relations.

A recent cartoon in the El Espectador newspaper depicted Pastrana
desperately clinging to a ledge as the giant hand of Uncle Sam prepares to
push him into the abyss.

Moreno and Pastrana were high school classmates while Moreno's father was a
high-ranking official under President Misael Pastrana, Andres Pastrana's
late father.

Moreno later became an executive producer at TV Hoy, a Bogota newscast
operated by the Pastrana family, and went on to manage Pastrana's 1994 and
1998 election campaigns.

Last year, Moreno was dispatched to Washington as a kind of diplomatic
clean-up man following the scandal-plagued term of former President Ernesto
Samper.

Samper was accused of taking $6.1 million from the Cali drug cartel during
the 1994 election in which he narrowly defeated Pastrana. The accusations
prompted the Clinton administration to blacklist Colombia for four straight
years as an unreliable partner in the drug war and to cut off aid partially.

As ambassador, Moreno was at first overshadowed by Colombian National Police
Chief Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano, who is viewed on Capitol Hill as a hero in
the drug war.

During the Samper government, Serrano was one of the few Colombian officials
welcome in Washington and he forged close ties to Republican lawmakers, such
as Rep. Ben Gilman, R-N.Y.

Gilman, the chairman of the House International Relations Committee,
strongly supports anti-drug aid to the Colombian police. When a U.S.-made
Blackhawk helicopter was delivered to Serrano last month, it was christened
"Big Ben."

Trying to refocus Colombia policy, Moreno has reached out to both
Republicans and Democrats, as well as to think tanks and human rights
groups.

He also has pushed for more military aid to improve the 160,000-man
Colombian army, which until recently had been excluded from U.S. funding
because of the military's human rights abuses and its links to illegal
paramilitary groups that have slaughtered thousands of civilians.

This shift in emphasis from the police to the army does not sit well with
some U.S. legislators, who prefer dealing with the Colombian police and who
distrust the army.

"Serrano is the one face we know and respect and who has a track record,"
said the congressional staff member. By contrast, he said, "the jury is
still out on the military's performance."

Moreno has had more success convincing the Clinton administration to support
peace talks between the Pastrana government and the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, the nation's largest Marxist rebel group known as the
FARC.

At the Colombian government's suggestion, for example, a State Department
official met with a top FARC commander last year to discuss the peace
process. Critics accused the Clinton administration of talking to
terrorists, but Moreno contends that the meeting helped to bring the FARC to
the bargaining table. Formal talks began last month.

"The fact that the United States is focused on Colombia will, in the end,
help to resolve the problems of Colombia," Moreno said.