HANDOVER OF PANAMA BASE HINDERS ANTI-DRUG EFFORTS

The turnover of a U.S. military base to Panama earlier this month has left a
gaping hole in American counter-drug efforts in Central America and the
Caribbean, forcing the Clinton administration to scramble for
new facilities that can be used to track drug shipments from South America.

All U.S. forces are scheduled to leave Panama, formerly headquarters for the
U.S. Southern Command, by the end of the year under terms of the Panama
Canal treaties. On May 1, Howard Air Force Base was turned over to Panama,
depriving the United States of a base for 22 surveillance aircraft and
causing a sharp drop in anti-drug coverage of the region.

To maintain a presence in the area, the Clinton administration has hastily
negotiated a short-term agreement with the Netherlands to station aircraft
at the airports in the Dutch Caribbean protectorates of Aruba and Curacao.
It negotiated a similar agreement with Ecuador to station airplanes in the
Pacific coast city of Manta.

Washington is seeking a third such agreement in Central America and, to that
end, is currently negotiating with Costa Rica. All of the new airfields,
however, will require substantial improvements -- including new maintenance
facilities and housing -- that will cost more than $100 million, Pentagon
officials said.

U.S. aircraft flew about 2,000 surveillance missions out of Howard last
year, gathering intelligence for the United States and for counter-drug
forces in other countries in the region, officials said. Pentagon officials
said that even under ideal circumstances it will take two to three years to
regain the surveillance capability that existed in Panama.

All the cocaine and most of the heroin used in the United States is produced
in South America and moved north by airplane or ship through Central America
and Mexico or through the Caribbean.

In a May 20 letter to Defense Secretary William S. Cohen, four Republican
congressmen warned that the loss of Howard has presented the United States
with "one of the worst disasters in our U.S. counterdrug history."

"These counterdrug flights are essential for information sharing with other
countries in the region, for eradication and narcotics interdiction," said
the letter from representatives John L. Mica (Fla.); Benjamin A. Gilman
(N.Y.); Mark Edward Souder (Ind.); and Robert L. Barr Jr. (Ga.). "Without
these essential flights the
department is creating a wide open door to drug traffickers and destroying
the first line of defense against illegal narcotics traffickers."

The letter said that "failed negotiations" with Panama and "the absence of
adequate advance planning" had endangered the drug war.

Barry R. McCaffrey, the administration's national drug policy director, said
he was "worried" by the loss of Howard but blamed the delay in getting the
new bases operational on then-Panamanian President Ernesto Perez Balladares,
who, he said, had agreed privately to extend the U.S. presence in Panama,
then backed out last September.

"I'm very disappointed," McCaffrey said. "It has put us in a scramble."

Ana Maria Salazar, deputy assistant secretary of defense for drug
enforcement policy, said at a congressional hearing May 4 that the Pentagon
could not approach other countries about hosting U.S. surveillance aircraft
until after the talks with Panama formally ended. This left very little lead
time to put other agreements together, she said.

The opening of the centers in Aruba and Curacao will eventually allow the
United States to fly about 65 percent of the surveillance missions flown out
of Howard last year, Pentagon officials said. That level will increase to
110 percent following the opening of the center at Manta and a third
location in Central America, the officials said.

The agreement with the Netherlands runs through September, and the agreement
with Ecuador expires next May. But U.S. officials expressed confidence that
the host countries would agree to long-term arrangements because each of the
new locations would require only eight U.S. soldiers, although that number
would fluctuate as air crews
rotate through the bases on temporary assignments.

"We think we have a good strategy," said one Pentagon official. "While the
arrangement is different, it's a more productive way of engaging other
countries."