FEARING POTENTIAL DRUG CRISIS, U.S. PLANS TO BOOST AID TO COLOMBIA

WASHINGTON - The Clinton administration is preparing to greatly step up
military and economic aid to Colombia in response to fears that the growing
strength of drug-financed Marxist guerrillas there could undercut
counter-narcotics efforts across the Andean region.

In separate visits to Colombia, senior U.S. officials warned President
Andres Pastrana last week that he risks losing U.S. support if he makes
further concessions to the insurgents in an effort to restart stalled peace
negotiations, according to sources familiar with the talks. But the
officials -- the White House drug adviser, Barry McCaffrey, and
Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering also told Mr. Pastrana the United
States will sharply increase aid if he develops a comprehensive plan to
strengthen the military, halt the nation's economic free fall and fight drug
trafficking,

Part of the economic aid will be $3 billion in International Monetary Fund
loans, with some additional direct U.S. military aid. Mr. Pickering,
briefing reporters here, said he asked Mr. Pastrana to present his plan by
the middle of September in order to seek supplemental funding from Congress
this year.

While specific aid figures will not be discussed until Mr. Pastrana presents
his plan, senior officials and congressional sources said it would be
hundreds of millions of dollars. Colombian defense officials last month
requested $500 million in additional military aid over the next two years, a
number U.S. officials said is being discussed. U.S. security assistance
already stands at $289 million this year, making Colombia the thirdlargest
recipient of such U.S. aid after Israel and Egypt.

"We are working toward a muchlarger engagement with the United States,
involving combating narcotics, strengthening our battlefield capabilities
and economic issues," said a Colombia Foreign Ministry official. "It is a
muchbroader engagement than just the narcotics issue because all our
problems are linked. "

President Bill Clinton, for the first time senior administration officials
could recall, was briefed on Colombia by Cabinet officials Wednesday. The
officials said National Security Adviser Sandy Berger !get and Mr.
Pickering, the State Department's third-ranking offi- cial, were put in
charge of interagency coordination of Colombian policy.

The decision to escalate aid comes a year after the United States resumed
helping the! army and expanded intelligence sharing, ending a period
covering most of this decade during which collaboration was cut off because
of the army's abysmal human rights record.

Currently the United States is training a 950-man Colombian Army
counternarcotics battalion, the first such specialized unit in the military,
whose primary objective will be to regain control of guerrilla-controlled
territory. Pentagon and State Department officials said they recently agreed
to try to provide the group with 18 Huey UH- IN helicopters. And, according
to the same sources, the United States is planning on funding at least two
more such battalions, a move that would boost U.S. aid by tens of millions
of dollars.

Mr. Pickering said he was "sobered but certainly not panicked" by his trip
and stressed that the guerrillas are not on the verge of military victory.
But other officials were less optimistic.

"Colombia is a disaster, and I don't see any way around that," said Mr.
McCaffrey, a retired general who recently proposed spending an additional $1
billion in the Andean drug-producing region, with about half of the money
going to Colombia. "We are in a period of intense debate in the
administration and on the Hill, but we don't have the latitude to let a
fellow democracy go under."

Mr. McCaffrey said his proposal, including money for alternative development
and judicial reform along with military aid, was an attempt to tackle
Colombia's multiple problems. " So far, the debate has been at a micro
level, about 10 helicopters here or training a battalion there," Mr.
McCaffrey said.

"We are not talking about the right order of magnitude for this problem."

Colombia produces 80 percent of the world's cocaine and about 70 percent of
the heroin found in the United States. Two Marxist guerrilla groups AC the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, with about 15,000 combatants, and
the National Liberation Army, with about 5,000 -- control about 40 percent
of the national territory and receive hundreds of millions of dollars a year
from protecting drug-trafficking routes, airstrips and laboratories. In
addition, some 7,000 right-wing paramilitary troops, who also derive
millions of dollars from cocaine trafficking, control about 15 percent of
the national territory.

With the U.S. military gone from Panama, officials say, the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia is increasing its use of the southern portion of
that nation as a safe haven, while expanding its presence in neighboring
Ecuador and Venezuela. And President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, a populist
leftist who has expressed sympathy for armed revolution, has denied use of
Venezuelan airspace to U.S. airplanes pursuing drug traffickers.