IN DRUG WAR, HASTERT IN COLOMBIA'S CORNER

House Speaker Is In A Key Position To Bolster U.S. Assistance To Bogota

WASHINGTON -- The arrests in Colombia this week of 31 suspected drug
traffickers, including two believed by U.S. authorities to be among
the most powerful in the world, underscore the attention American law
enforcement officials are giving to Colombia as a leading supplier of
heroin and cocaine to the U.S.

The arrests by Colombian authorities, acting on indictments from a
Miami federal grand jury, come as the South American nation seeks a
major increase in U.S. aid to end a guerrilla insurgency by
emphasizing links between the civil strife and rampant drug smuggling.

Colombia has good reason to expect that its aid request will be
favorably heard: One of its strongest congressional allies is Speaker
of the House Dennis Hastert of Illinois.

As a member of the Republican congressional leadership a year ago,
Hastert was instrumental in adding a major increase in anti-narcotics
assistance to Colombia to the end-of-the-year budget deal.

Now, as the U.S. considers a new aid package that could greatly expand
American involvement in Colombia, Hastert is in a position to wield
more influence.

"He is the one most committed member at the leadership level of your
Congress who understands what needs to be done and is willing to do
it," said Luis Alberto Moreno, Colombia's ambassador to the U.S.
"Every time you talk to him, he is very focused on it."

Despite initial resistance from the Clinton administration to the
extra spending, assistance to Colombia soared to $310 million this
year from $115 million the previous year, with almost all of the
increase coming from the package Hastert assembled, according to the
Office of Management and Budget.

The three largest recipients of U.S. foreign aid this year are Israel,
Egypt and Jordan, all critical allies in the strategically sensitive
Middle East. The next-largest recipient--leading even strategically
important Turkey and war-ravaged Bosnia-Herzegovina--is Colombia.

Hastert for years has been a determined supporter of curbing cocaine
and heroin smuggling by emphasizing security assistance to Colombia,
particularly its national police force, even when relations between
the U.S. and Colombia were strained during the mid-1990s.

"I think the oldest democracy in the Southern Hemisphere is in great
jeopardy," Hastert said in an interview, later adding, "I'm concerned
about Colombia because of the implications it has for our kids--the
heroin and cocaine that comes into our country."

Before he became speaker, Hastert went to Colombia four times,
helicoptering to remote police bases in the rain forest and visiting
wounded members of the national police in hospitals.

Now he has risen from relative obscurity to his present position amid
the turmoil of impeachment and a sex scandal in the Republican
leadership, bringing to his office forceful opinions on Colombia just
as U.S. policy toward the South American nation reaches a critical
juncture.

As cocaine production in Bolivia and Peru recedes, Columbia's output
has risen substantially, according to the National Drug Control Policy
Office. The country also is becoming an important source of heroin as
Colombian drug traffickers respond to growing demand in the U.S. for
that drug.

Much of the countryside effectively has come under the control of
leftist guerrillas, who U.S. drug authorities have concluded gain
significant financial support by protecting and taxing narcotics
traffickers. Right-wing paramilitary groups operating amid the strife
also have been linked to drug trafficking.

Seeking to gain greater leverage in stalled negotiations to end three
decades of civil conflict, Colombian President Andres Pastrana last
month asked foreign donors for a three-year, $3.5 billion aid package,
including economic assistance and increased support for the Colombian
military.

The Clinton administration is still working on its response, with
internal differences remaining over the size of an assistance package
and how heavily tilted it should be toward military aid, according to
several officials involved in the discussions.

The internal debate reflects concerns that the U.S. could be drawn
more deeply into a long-standing civil conflict. About 200 U.S.
military personnel already are in Colombia as military trainers
assigned to prepare a specially screened battalion of the Colombian
army in advanced infantry tactics in support of the drug war there.

The risks of involvement were highlighted in July when a U.S.
reconnaissance plane crashed during a mission over Colombia, killing
five American soldiers.

Jim Fallin, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said,
"There is a strong sense that something serious needs to be done."

The political and financial constraints of the federal budget also are
delaying progress on the aid package, with neither the White House nor
Congress anxious to be the first to break the balanced budget limits
by embracing an expensive foreign aid program. The same realities will
restrict Hastert's ability to maneuver on a final aid package, despite
his interest in the region.

But once the administration proposes a Colombia package, "I would be
an ally with them to try to get dollars to stabilize that situation,"
Hastert said. He said he will continue to try to shape policy to
emphasize aid to Colombian security forces and eradication of coca
fields.

The anti-narcotics package Hastert helped insert in the budget last
year assured just that, restricting the administration's leeway with
specific allocations for military hardware--including Blackhawk
helicopters, other aircraft, gun systems for helicopters and security
equipment for prisons.

A spokesman for Hastert brushed aside concerns that assistance
designed to counter narcotics would be used in a broader
counterinsurgency campaign.

"The whole point is that these groups are part and parcel of the
problem. If you're fighting them for one reason, you're fighting them
for the other," said John Feehery, Hastert's press secretary.

Pastrana dismissed a high-ranking general implicated in human rights
abuses several weeks before making his aid request, but international
monitoring groups have criticized Colombia's armed forces, primarily
the army but also the national police. Members of those units have
acted "hand in glove" with paramilitary groups and cooperated in
civilian killings and even massacres, said Carlos Salinas, Latin
America director for Amnesty International USA.

The guerrilla groups also are widely reported to have committed
civilian killings and kidnappings for ransom.

Since 1997, a budget restriction authored by Sen. Patrick Leahy
(D-Vt.) has forbidden distribution of U.S. aid in Colombia to military
units whose members have been found to have committed atrocities.

By contrast, Hastert "has pushed the military and police viewpoint
almost to the exclusion of any other," Salinas said. "He is also one
who has been singular in not including the human rights viewpoint in
his war on drugs in Colombia."

Hastert's focus on Colombia developed during the 1990s, as
counter-narcotics assistance to the nation declined sharply from
levels set by the Bush administration. The Clinton administration was
redirecting anti-narcotics resources toward efforts to reduce demand
through drug treatment and other measures, a traditional difference
between Democrats and Republicans in approaching the drugs problem.

In 1996, Colombia's assistance was cut further when the U.S.
decertified the country for not cooperating with counter-narcotics
efforts. That followed allegations that then-President Ernesto Samper
had received massive campaign contributions from drug cartels.
President Clinton lifted the sanctions in August 1997.

Hastert joined in attacking the cutbacks in Colombia with a coterie of
Clinton critics, including House International Relations Committee
Chairman Benjamin Gilman (R-N.Y.) and conservative firebrands Reps.
Dan Burton (R-Ind.) and Bob Barr (R-Ga.).

Their enthusiasm was cultivated by attentive lobbying from Colombian
officials, especially Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano, now chief of the
Colombian National Police. Serrano is given credit for leading the
forces that broke up the Cali cartel and is highly regarded by
congressional aides and U.S. drug enforcement officials

Serrano and his lieutenants are "some of the best people we would see
in the world in terms of honesty and corruption," said Tom
Constantine, former administrator of the Drug Enforcement
Administration.

Serrano became a frequent visitor to Hastert's U.S. Capitol office and
met with the speaker last week to make the case for Colombia's aid
request.

Hastert's admiration for Serrano is clear, said aides and members of
Congress. Once, while chairing a congressional hearing in February
1997, Hastert declared he would like to nominate the police commander
for the Nobel Peace Prize.