COLOMBIA TO RECEIVE AID FOR DRUG SQUAD

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 (UPI) - Weighing a history of human rights abuses
against a growing threat of drugs in this country, U.S. officials have
decided to increase their support of the Colombian armed forces.

The Washington Post is reporting today that the United States plans to
provide training and funds for a 1,000-man counter-narcotics brigade
and a CIA- sponsored intelligence center in the Amazon jungle.

The brigade is scheduled to be ready by the middle of 1999. The
Colombian military has asked for $1.3 billion over five years. U.S.
officials say while they are certain to provide training and some
equipment, they probably won't provide the entire amount for which the
Colombians have asked.

The Post is citing sources in the United States and Colombia as saying
the change in policy is significant. Most recent aid to drug fighting
in Colombia has gone to the country's police force after disclosures
of human-rights abuses led to limiting aid to the Colombian military.

The decision has not been popular among human rights organizations,
which say the United States risks becoming involved in the 40-year-old
Colombian civil war by giving aid to a military with one of the worst
human rights records in Latin America.

U.S. officials explain to the Post they have little option, since the
largest rebel group in Colombia - the Revolutionary Armed Forced of
Colombia - is funding its effort to establish a Marxist state through
drug revenues. It is estimated the group is given about $500 million
a year for protection of drug traffickers.

One U.S. official tells the newspaper: ``We are committed to
maintaining the line between counterinsurgency and counter-drugs,
because we are not in the counterinsurgency business. But to the
degree counter-drug efforts bring us into conflict with the
guerillas, so be it....That is the price we pay for (giving this aid)
and the price the guerillas pay for being involved with drug
trafficking.''

American officials claim about 80 percent of the cocaine and 60
percent of the heroin sold in the United States comes from Colombia.