COLOMBIAN DRUG WAR DEFENDED

AIDE: Gen. Barry McCaffrey says the country is a 'democratic regime in
trouble.'

Bogota,Colombia-U.S. drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey on Monday defended the
costly U.S. aid effort in Colombia, calling the rebel-besieged country a
"democratic regime in trouble."

Since the mid-1960s, Marxist rebels have waged war against the government,
and according to U.S. intelligence, they control half - and perhaps more -
of Colombian territory.

In recent weeks, the guerrillas have humiliated the administration of
President Andres Pastrana by taking their fight to the outskirts of Bogota,
the nation's capital. In the past, the rebels generally have launched
attacks in rural areas.

Analysts believe that the heightened guerrilla activity is part of a
campaign to negotiate from a position of strength as rebel leaders prepare
for peace talks with the government.

U.S. and Colombian officials, meanwhile, insist that the rebels largely
finance their war through the drug trade, selling hundreds of millions of
dollars a year in protection to narcotics traffickers. Critics, however,
charge that the rebel link to drug barons is overblown, that it is an excuse
by Washington to increase its military role here.

At any one time, 160 to 190 American soldiers are stationed in Colombia to
help with the war on drugs. On Friday, an Army spy plane carrying five
Americans and two Colombians vanished in southwestern Colombia while on a
drug-fighting mission.

Rescue teams spotted a wreckage site near Colombia's border with Ecuador on
Sunday, but because of inclement weather and rough terrain, American
officials said they were unable to verify that it was the missing
four-engine de Havilland RC-7.

In recent years, the Clinton administration has increased funding for the
drug war in Colombia, hitting $256 million this year, according to
McCaffrey. He reportedly has asked the administration to seek $1 billion in
emergency aid from Congress to help Bogota combat drugs.

Although American aid is to be used exclusively for the war on drugs, U.S.
officials acknowledge that the line between counter-narcotics operations and
counter-insurgency operations sometimes becomes blurred because of the role
the guerrillas play in drug trafficking. For example, Washington has
supplied Colombia with intelligence on rebel activity as part of
counter-narcotics efforts by both countries, and the Colombians are believed
to have used that information to attack rebel battalions in recent weeks.

The rebels have threatened to retaliate against U.S. targets in Colombia.

At a news conference at the presidential compound Monday, McCaffrey was
asked whether he was concerned that additional aid to Colombia would get the
United States "too involved" here. McCaffrey said, "Clearly, we have a
democratic regime in trouble."

He criticized Washington for not paying enough attention to the growing
threat posed by "narco-criminals." McCaffrey, who is in Colombia on a
four-day South American tour, noted that in the past year, there has been a
"tremendous explosion" of cocaine and heroin production.

In addressing American aid, he stressed that it was up to Colombia, and not
the White House, to decide how to spend the money it receives from
Washington.

Colombia, the world's largest cocaine producer, is now the third-largest
recipient of U.S. aid behind Israel and Egypt.

At the news conference, McCaffrey also said the turmoil in Colombia not only
affected Colombia and the United States, but the entire region and the
Caribbean.

"Drugs is the heart and soul of many of these problems," McCaffrey said,
"the money, the corruption, and violence that flow from it."

McCaffrey, who was meeting with business leaders and other government
officials, said he was in Colombia to hear firsthand the problems that the
Pastrana administration is facing and to report back to Washington. He also
planned to visit Ecuador and Curacoa.

Asked whether the incident of the missing spy plane would hurt lobbying
efforts in Washington for increased aid to Colombia, McCaffrey declined to
comment, saying it would be premature because the supposed wreckage site had
not been examined.

The names of the Americans aboard the plane were not released.