US SEEKS VENEZUELA BACKING ON DRUGS

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) Venezuela is expressing reservations about a U.S.
request to use its airspace for anti-narcotics flights from three new
staging centers being set up in Ecuador and the Dutch islands of Curacao
and Aruba, an official confirmed Friday.

"The government will thoroughly evaluate the request to fly over Venezuelan
territory toward Colombia," Venezuelan Interior Minister Luis Miquelena told
The Associated Press Friday. He added that his government was concerned
because the United States "not only has surveillance planes in the Curacao
and Aruba bases, but also F-16s, which are war planes."

The request is part of the Clinton administration's effort to compensate for
the U.S. withdrawal from the Howard Air Force Base in Panama Canal Zone,
which until May 1 had been used for such reconnaissance flights.

U.S. officials admitted earlier this month that the withdrawal has weakened
anti-drug efforts in Latin America.

The Clinton administration came under heavy criticism in Congress for what
Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., called the administration's "disjointed and
halfhearted response to the impending withdrawal of U.S. forces from Panama."

Ana Maria Salazar, the Pentagon's deputy assistant secretary for drug
enforcement policy, acknowledged recently that surveillance coverage of the
Caribbean region was now only half of what it was two years ago.

Using Venezuelan airspace would presumably be necessary under the latest
plan because of the South American nation's proximity to both Curacao and Aruba.

"The U.S. has invited the Venezuelan Air Force to station personnel in Aruba
and Curacao to ride any U.S. aircraft that overflies Venezuelan territory
and to share fully any information gathered on narcotics trafficking," said
a statement Thursday from U.S. State Department.

Venezuela's interior minister suggested Friday that such cooperation may not
occur.

"This is a very difficult problem for us because Venezuelans are very
sensitive about sovereignty," Miquelena said.

The U.S. request has prompted alarmist headlines in the Venezuelan press.

To further its goal of stemming the flow of cocaine from Colombia, the
United States signed interim agreements with both Ecuador and the
Netherlands. The agreement with Ecuador on use of an airfield in Manta ends
in September, and the agreement with the Netherlands expires next April.

According to Salazar, the United States had been flying some 2,000 anti-drug
missions a year out of the Canal Zone, which will be turned over to the
Panamanian government on Dec. 31, 1999, under the terms of the treaty
negotiated by the Carter administration in 1977.