SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT ABOUT COLOMBIAN LEADER

Columbian President Andres Pastrana is not pleased with some things
written here a few weeks ago.

That column was part of a report about the battle to prevent
Marxist-style revolutionaries, heavily financed by cocaine and heroin
profits, from taking over Colombia and spreading their influence into
neighboring Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Panama.

The battle is not going well. The guerrilla army of the
narco-revolutionaries is growing rapidly. So is its power. The
guerrillas now control at least one-third of Colombia's countryside,
and their tentacles reach deep into the larger cities.

The combined Colombian narcotics and revolutionary forces have spread
over, and appear to operate freely in, a wide area across the
Ecuadorean and Peruvian borders, with some operations in Venezuela and
remote northern sections of Brazil. Panama is skittish over what to do
about them.

Recognition of this problem and its threat to the stability of
northern South America and southern Central America has come late to
the Clinton administration.

But it has come. While high administration sources insist that no
large infusion of U.S. military forces is being considered, they
confirm that an increase in military equipment and training,
intelligence resources and economic aid to Colombia is in the works.

The U.S. State Department likes Pastrana, but U.S. diplomats worry
about the Colombian army's human rights record and its ties to
right-wing paramilitary units. Those are facts -- facts that
apparently worried Pastrana when they were mentioned in this column.

Through intermediaries, it was said he considered some of the report
"misleading at best." Apparently, what worried him most is that
someone might infer that he supports paramilitary activity.

Frankly, it is difficult to see why he worries on the basis of what
was written here. But, from all accounts, he is a good man under
excruciating pressure, so in the interest of fairness and accuracy,
let me stress this: So far as can be determined, Pastrana is not, and
never has been, connected with any paramilitary force or with alleged
corruption in the Colombian army. To the contrary, the best available
evidence strongly indicates that he is, and consistently has been, on
a campaign to eradicate both.

None of that, however, should mislead anyone into ducking the hard
realities of Colombia. Its army is weak and ineffective in the field,
and many questions remain about possible corruption.

The best fighting by Colombians is being done by the smaller, but more
effective, national police force, specially trained and nurtured by
the United States all through the 1990s. Neither Pastrana nor anyone
else should be surprised when the police get the most help in the
late-starting Clinton administration drive to slow the momentum of
the narco-guerrillas and prevent destabilization of the region.