VENEZUELA BARS US OVERFLIGHTS FOR DRUGS

CARACAS - For years, the long, mountainous border separating Colombia and
Venezuela has offered drug traffickers ample opportunity to ferry their cargo.

And smugglers have taken advantage of the easy route to Venezuela's porous
ports. Last year, more than 110 tons of Colombian heroin and cocaine passed
through Venezuela before it was shipped to the United States and Europe,
representing nearly one-sixth of all illegal drugs produced in Latin
America, US officials said.

But now traffickers have a faster and more secure route, which before
carried the risk of interception by US military jets: air.

At the end of May, President Hugo Chavez announced that US military jets
could no longer enter his country's airspace. To do so, he said, would
violate Venezuela's sovereignty.

The rejection drew pleas from the United States, which has been
increasingly challenged in fighting the flow of drugs from South America
since May, when Howard Air Force Base, Panama, shut down to comply with the
Panama Canal Treaties.

Chavez, a leader of a failed coup who was denied a US visa before he was
elected by a sweeping majority in December, has hampered US interdiction
efforts at a critical time. The denial of Venezuelan airspace considerably
reduces the effectiveness of the new US antidrug bases in the Dutch islands
of Aruba and Curacao, which lie about 50 miles off Venezuela's coast.

''Our challenge is to absolutely defer to Venezuelan sovereignty while
doing everything we can to support their ability to cover their airspace,''
said retired Army General Barry McCaffrey, the US drug policy adviser. ''We
don't expect a change in Venezuela's position. But we give them the facts.
And we hope they reconsider.''

These are McCaffrey's points, as described to Chavez in a 90-minute meeting
in July: From January to July 20, 29 suspect flights flying from Colombia
to Venezuela were tracked by US radar and jets. Since May 28, Chavez's
government denied all nine requests by the United States to chase likely
drug flights in hot pursuit. And it now takes US planes an additional hour
and a half to circumvent Venezuelan airspace, precious time during
interdiction missions.

''As traffickers become aware that Venezuelan air space is not being
monitored, they're going to be attracted to the weak link,'' said Brad
Hittle, an aide to McCaffrey at the White House's Office of National Drug
Control Policy. ''You are just opening the window wider to the bad guys.''

Chavez's government disagrees. Venezuelan officials say they are more than
capable of guarding the nation's airspace. And they say they have a strong
record of fighting drugs, seizing more than 2,600 kilograms of cocaine and
heroin in the first six months of this year, twice the quantity confiscated
in 1998.

''With adequate coordination, Venezuela can handle this,'' said Alfredo
Toro Hardy, Venezuela's ambassador to the United States. Hardy taught
Chavez political science at the University of Simon Bolivar in Caracas.
''We have plenty of F-16s capable of taking a handoff from US planes. It's
just like what happens between police forces when a criminal crosses a
state in the United States.''

But US officials cast doubt on Venezuela's ability to monitor effectively
and pursue traffickers sneaking through its airspace. Since Chavez's
reversal of Venezuela's policy in May, his air force has only intercepted
one of at least 11 suspect planes, Hittle said.

And many US officials are increasingly wary of Chavez, who, his critics
said, is moving to impose a military dictatorship in one of Latin America's
oldest democracies.

''It's very unfortunate that the Venezuelan government has taken these
recent decisions,'' said Otto Reich, a former US ambassador to Venezuela in
the late 1980s. ''The denial of overflights is a significant negative
development. Both nations stand to lose.''

The anger has reached Congress, where officials have warned that if
Chavez's position does not change, the United States may respond by
refusing to certify that Venezuela is collaborating fully in the drug war.
That would deprive the country of vital trade and aid. The $12 million in
antidrug money the United States now gives Venezuela, however, would not be
affected.

''Of course, Venezuela's decision should be factored into the president's
certification decision process,'' said Lester Munson, spokesman for the
House International Relations Committee. ''The United States right now is
at its lowest ebb at covering the drug-transiting region. The lack of
overflights is part of the problem.''

During his recent visit to Venezuela, McCaffrey, the drug policy leader,
said he had tried to impress upon Chavez that more than US planes flying
over Venezuelan airspace, drug traffickers were violating his country's
sovereignty.

This nation of more than 23 million people, moreover, has increasingly
become the victim of drug trafficking and use. A surging crime rate between
1986 and this past June claimed 45,009 recorded homicides, which peaked at
4,961 in 1996 and may top that number this year.

Most of the crime results from an economy that has left more than 80
percent of the people living in poverty, police said. In the same time,
police said, there were 415,000 violent drug-related crimes. While
McCaffrey and his staff hope Chavez will change his mind, they are not
optimistic. And they predict data will soon show drug traffickers are
exploiting their new freedom to fly through Venezuelan airspace unimpeded
by US jets.

''The jury is still out on how much of a difference this will make,''
Hittle said. ''But the general number of transits are going in the wrong
direction. And the simple fact is it will now be easier for traffickers to
carry drugs by air.''