ADMINISTRATION TOUTS CHEAPER DRUG STRATEGY

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials are touting what they see as a lower
cost way to combat South American narcotics smuggling compared with a
$75 million-a-year operation that had been run out of Panama until
this past spring.

With the Panama Canal treaties mandating an end to U.S. military
presence in Panama, the Clinton administration won permission to run
drug surveillance flights out of Aruba and Curacao, along the northern
South American coast, and Ecuador. Talks also are under way with the
government of an unnamed country in Central America to provide another
staging area for the flights.

During its first month of operations in May, officials said the
surveillance flights led to the forcing down of seven U.S.-bound
narcotics flights from South America exceeding the number for the
comparable period a year ago when these flights were still operated
out of Panama. In addition, the operations led to two large seizures
of cocaine, according to the officials, who asked not to be identified.

But they also acknowledged that reduced U.S. military presence has led
to an increase in drug smuggling into Panama from neighboring Colombia
and has emboldened leftist guerrillas from Colombia to undertake
repeated incursions into Panama.

The main purpose of the U.S. surveillance flights is to detect and
track narcotics flights. If a suspect aircraft is spotted over
Colombia, for instance, authorities from that country are alerted and
dispatch a plane to force the offending aircraft down.

While the officials are encouraged by the project thus far, they are
not ready to declare the experiment a definitive success.

The Panama Canal treaties don't require the departure of U.S. forces
until the end of the year, but the phasing out process is well under
way. Howard Air Force Base, the starting point for 2,000 surveillance
flights annually for many years, essentially went out of business in
May, although a residual U.S. presence remains.

House International Relations Committee Chairman Benjamin Gilman,
R-N.Y., said at a hearing in May that the air base was "the crown
jewel in our fight against drugs" and that the administration had not
done enough to compensate for losing the base.

But Gen. Charles Wilhelm, the ranking U.S. military officer for Latin
America, testified Tuesday that once the new staging areas are ready,
surveillance will be 110 per cent of what it was when Howard was the
base of operations.

Wilhelm, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee
on the Western Hemisphere, said it could cost $122 million to upgrade
airports at the staging areas. But he said this would be a one-time
payment compared with annual $75 million outlays at Howard. Another
advantage is that local governments pay for security. At Howard, this
was a U.S. responsibility.

Other analysts note that the facilities in Panama were used for more
than drug surveillance operations. Their mandate included
search-and-rescue operations and humanitarian relief. Tons of supplies
were flown from Panama to assist victims of Hurricane Mitch in
Nicaragua and Honduras last fall. In recent weeks, the United States
shut down an intelligence gathering facility at Galeta Island in
Panama and also Fort Sherman, which was used as a training facility
for almost 50 years.

In his testimony, Wilhelm expressed concern about the incursions he
said Colombian guerrillas have been making into Panama's territory. He
said Panama's security forces are not "manned, trained or equipped" to
deal with the problem.

Panama does not have a military and relies on a national police force
for security. He added that the guerrillas have forced some
Panamanians from their homes in the border area and they also go there
to rest.