COLOMBIAN OFFICIAL SURPRISED AT HUGE US ANTI-DRUG AID

WASHINGTON -- Colombian Defense Minister Rodrigo Lloreda told a leading US
daily that he was surprised when the US Congress approved 289 million
dollars in drug-fighting money for his country.

"It was a decision that surprised everybody," Lloreda said in an interview
published Tuesday in The New York Times.

The US funds for Colombia, included in the 500 billion dollar budget for
fiscal 1999 passed by Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton on
October 21, represent a tenfold increase in anti-drug funding since 1993.

Lloreda said the United States had previously supported Colombia's
drug-fighting efforts, "but they kept a certain balance between Colombia,
Peru and other countries."

The 289 million dollars for Colombia, part of a 690 million dollar
anti-drug package for Latin America, is mostly earmarked for weapons,
helicopters and surveillance planes, the daily said.

Some critics fear the Clinton administration will find it difficult to
restrict the aid to attacking the drug trade at its source and will be
lured into supporting Colombia's protracted struggle against leftist
guerrillas.

"It's another step in the wrong direction," said Adam Isaacson , of the
Center for International Policy, a Washington-based research institute. "I
would call it a danger. There is an overlap to worry about."

Administration officials argued that the aid would strengthen Colombian
President Andres Pastrana's position as he embarks on peace negotiations
with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the country's largest and
oldest guerrilla group.

"You can't negotiate unless you have strength," Lloreda told the daily. "We
would all like peace to come spontaneously out of good will, but it doesn't
always work that way."

Checked-by: Richard Lake