U.S. ANTI-DRUG CHIEF, IN COLOMBIA, SPEAKS OF 'REGIONAL CRISIS'

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 begins 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.

"So long as I am President of Colombia, I will never accept nor permit
the intervention of other countries in the internal problems of our
nation," he said in a speech over the weekend. "I want to be clear:
Colombia is not and will never be a threat to any country. Those who
want to sell incorrect stories about the security of the region are
wrong."

In his public remarks Monday, McCaffrey did not directly address the
Latin American reservations. But he emphasized at every opportunity
that there were no plans for American military intervention.

"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, and always "in absolute deference to the
national sovereignty of our partners."

As if to underscore the risks of American involvement here, Colombian
police and army units were trying, despite a heavy fog, to reach the
wreckage of a plane that went off radar screens early Friday while
flying a counterdrug reconnaissance mission over a guerrilla-held
area. The rebels often fire at crop-dusting planes in territory they
control, but there are no indications that the seven-man crew is in
rebel hands or that it was brought down by anything other than an accident.

"It is premature to have any conclusions about the flight until
Colombian police forces are at the site," McCaffrey said Monday. But
he added, "The evidence so far would indicate that the five brave
American aviators and two Colombian Air Force officers have probably
lost their lives in a fatal accident."