U.S. OFFICIAL, IN COLOMBIA, CITES DRUG 'EMERGENCY'

BOGOTA, Colombia - The Clinton administration's top anti-narcotics official
arrived here Monday to assess what he described as a deepening regional
crisis, one that Latin American governments fear will lead to American
intervention.

He arrived as a search continued for a plane with five American soldiers
and two Colombian military officers who had been on a counter-drug
reconnaissance mission.

The visit by Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, who was accompanied by State
Department and military officials, comes 10 days after the Colombian
government asked the United States for $500 million in additional aid over
the next two years. The money would be used to combat left-wing guerrilla
groups that, both governments say, are deeply involved in cocaine and
heroin trafficking.

Colombia, scheduled to receive $289 million in assistance from Washington
this year, is already the third-largest recipient of American aid, after
Israel and Egypt. McCaffrey recommended this month that $1 billion in
"emergency drug supplemental assistance" be made available to Colombia and
other American allies in the Andes and the Caribbean as soon as possible.

"The United States has paid inadequate attention to a serious and growing
emergency in the region," McCaffrey said at a news conference here Monday,
after meeting with President Andres Pastrana.

McCaffrey began his visit, which is scheduled to take him to Ecuador and
Curacao later this week, at a time of mounting American concern about the
military and political situation here and growing Latin American concern
about the United States' intentions. At a news conference last week,
President Clinton said he recognized that vital American interests were at
stake in Colombia.

It is "very much in our national security interests to do what we can, if
we can be helpful in ending the civil conflict so that Colombia can be
about the business of freeing itself of the narco-traffickers," he said.

Clinton's declaration of support for Pastrana was not in itself new. But
after recent gains here by guerrillas, it has been interpreted in Latin
America as a possible prelude to increased American involvement in
Colombia. The governments of Peru, Brazil and Venezuela have responded in
recent days with statements condemning any outside interference here.

Apparently seeking political gain, spokesmen for the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, the country's main guerrilla group, have also
brandished the specter of American military intervention. Pastrana, already
on the defensive because of his inability to check the rebels or bring them
to the negotiating table, responded by playing down both the degree of U.S.
assistance he is seeking and the danger the guerrillas represent to
neighboring countries.

"This is a Colombian question and a Colombian strategy," he said. The role
of the United States, he added, is limited to providing "support in a
regional crisis," only for counterdrug operations, not for
counterinsurgency efforts.