ANDRES PASTRANA

In a Newsmaker interview, Charles Krause talks with Andres Pastrana, the
new president of Columbia, about efforts to bring peace to the South
American nation.

CHARLES KRAUSE: Andres Pastrana was elected Colombia's president last June,
after a hard-fought campaign that turned on three central issues: The first
issue -- how to end 30 years of a deadly insurgency that's left nearly half
of Colombia in the hands of leftist guerrillas; the second issue -- how to
reduce the power of Colombia's drug cartels, which supply 80 percent of the
cocaine consumed in the United States and have bought protection by
corrupting Colombia's government; and finally, Pastrana's promise to
reactivate Colombia's depressed economy.

A platform of change.

A former television journalist and mayor of Bogota, the new president was
born into Colombia's economic and political elite. Now 44, his father was
Colombia's president when he was a teenager. Yet Andres Pastrana campaigned
as a good-government reformer and has demonstrated since his election that
he's prepared to take risks to carry out his program. In July, shortly
after the election, Pastrana met at a jungle hideout with the leaders of
Colombia's largest guerrilla group, the FARC. It was an unprecedented
meeting that resulted in a pledge by both sides to begin formal peace
negotiations before the end of the year. While still president-elect, he
also traveled to Washington for talks with President Clinton at White House.

The meeting was intended as another clear signal that the United States is
pleased Pastrana won the election. Pastrana was inaugurated in August,
succeeding Colombia's outgoing president Ernesto Samper, whose years in
office were badly tarnished by allegations that he'd accepted campaign
money from Colombia's drug cartels. Samper denied those charges, but the
U.S. didn't believe him. It imposed economic sanctions on Colombia, after
finding that Samper's government was not a reliable partner in the fight
against drugs. At the heart of the U.S. anti-drug program in Colombia is
aerial eradication --- spraying coca and poppy fields to reduce the supply
of raw cocaine and heroin. But many of the fields are located in
guerrilla-controlled territory -- and the guerrillas have opposed the
spraying efforts in part because they receive money from the drug
traffickers. Pastrana has promised the U.S. his full cooperation on the
drug issue. But he's also made clear that his first priority is to restore
peace to Colombia by ending the guerrilla insurgency -- which has
intensified in recent months. We interviewed Pastrana last month, shortly
before he addressed the United Nations in New York.

CHARLES KRAUSE: Mr. President, thank you very much for joining us. Do you
share the concern of military and intelligence analysts who say that if
something is not done quickly, Colombia could be overtaken by the
guerrillas and the drug traffickers within three to five years?

PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA, Colombia: Definitely. I don't - I don't share
that point of view. We know that we've been having problems with the
guerrilla movements in Colombia for the last 40 years. They have not
increased as people sometimes think about. I think right now we should have
- - you know, the guerrilla movement's nearly 20,000 men. But at the same
time, that's why they're working very hard and looking forward to achieving
a peace process in the next four years.

CHARLES KRAUSE: How difficult will it be for you to reach an agreement with
the guerrillas?

The search for peace.

PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA: Making peace is not easy. Peace has a lot of
enemies, even inside of our country. But I think that for the first time
the FARC - for some people it's 85 percent of the guerrilla movement in
Colombia - for others it's 75 percent, is the largest group, is the largest
guerrilla movement. I met with them. And we agree that the first 90 days of
my government, we will sit at the table of negotiations, or we will find
out the strategy to sit at the table of negotiations. We are almost 50 days
from that. The second step will be sitting - really, really sitting at the
table of negotiations. They will appoint their speakers in the table of
negotiations. My government would appoint also the speakers and people are
going to be in charge of managing the peace process, so we may said that we
are almost at 90 days to sit at the negotiations with the FARC. So I think
that - I'm positive - I think that for the first time we have seen it - a
will, the interest, the insurgents, to sit in the table of negotiations.

CHARLES KRAUSE: At the same time there are paramilitary groups - right wing
paramilitary groups, who are said to be organized by and connected to the
army. How are you going to deal with it now?

PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA: First of all, fighting them. We are putting a
lot of pressure to the army to fight the paramilitary groups. I've said
very clear that they have to go into the law, respect the law, respect the
constitution, but we'll put in all our efforts to end the paramilitary
groups in Colombia. I've said that there are going to be two tables of
negotiations, one of the guerrilla and the other with the paramilitary,
never mixed them. So my purpose at this moment is seeing the guerrilla to
try to achieve piece and at the same time putting all the efforts of the
army to eradicate the paramilitary groups. And when we started the process
with the guerrilla, I think it is the time to start the process with the
paramilitary.

CHARLES KRAUSE: Now you've talked about trying to or continue to eradicate
coca crops and other crops in the rural parts of the country. How do you
propose to deal with the drug cartels, with the manufacture and export of
drugs?

PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA: The same strategy that we've done in the last
years. We will keep our eradication program, fumigation program, the
eradication of - in Colombia but at the same time why don't we try for the
first time a different approach to try to eradicate these illicit crops.

CHARLES KRAUSE: And yet it is said that the guerrillas and the drug dealers
have an alliance and that the guerrillas are not going to allow the
eradication to continue and at the same time agree to a cease-fire with
government.

Working with guerrillas and drug dealers.

PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA: You remember that I met with the guerrilla
leaders in the middle of the jungle of Colombia and they gave me ten
points. One of them was the eradication of illicit crops.

CHARLES KRAUSE: Did they approve of that?

PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA: Oh, yes, and they said to me, look, give us
money, and we will eradicate the crops, or do it with the government so
we're working in what I have called type - type of is not the word but it's
type of like a Marshall Plan - alternative development in these areas where
you have illicit crops and also guerrilla presence, so that's why we are
creating a new fund to invest in what, in infrastructure, invest in
agri-industry, invest in generating new employment, investing in social
investment, in education, and water supply, and we hope to get nearly six
hundred to eight hundred million dollars to be invested in this type of
Marshall Plan. So that's why we are asking the international cooperation
that if we have funds, we are going to eradicate the drug problem of Colombia.

CHARLES KRAUSE: Has the United States agreed to contribute to that fund?

PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA: Yes, yes. In our first meeting with President
Clinton the 3rd of August, when I was only elected president of Colombia,
proposed the development of this alternative development of these areas
through the AID. We started a new program, a very small amount of money at
this moment, but it's the will of the government. It's so the government
has shown that they want to work with us, they gave us nearly $1/2 million
for this first step, and we're looking forward to get more money and
cooperation from the United States.

CHARLES KRAUSE: Do you think the United States needs to do more to stop
drugs entering this country?

PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA: Definitely. The U.S. needs to do a bigger, very
bigger effort to control the demand in the United States and I think that's
something that the U.S. Government is starting to do - creating the
consciousness that it's not only looking into the policing aspect of the
problem, repression, I think that for the first time there's a lot of new
investment in creating the culture of prevention and education of the young
kids going into drugs, and I think that's one of the purposes of the U.S.
Government.

CHARLES KRAUSE: And finally, Mr. President, I have been reporting from
Colombia for 20 years. I knew your father. I used to talk with him when I
was in Bogota. And we were talking about exactly the same issues then as we
are talking about today, the drug dealers, the drug traffickers, the
guerrillas, property, the problems of security and all the rest in
Colombia. What makes you think that you will be able to do what your five
predecessors since then have been unable to do, which is bring peace to
Colombia?

A commitment to peace.

PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA: I think first were the guerrillas. I think that
for the first time the meeting we had in the middle of the jungle of
Colombia showed the will of them to go into a peace process. You have more
commitment of the people of Colombia. You remember in the past elections,
on October 12th, ten million Colombians vote for a mandate for peace for
the new government. The church is involved in the peace process. The labor
unions are involved in the peace process. The parties is involved in the
peace process, the private sector, so I think now, Colombia, you have a
complete new environment regarding peace, and I think everybody's willing
to do something to bring peace to my country. Second, regarding drug lords,
I think that we will put all the efforts to try to really eradicate these
problems from Colombia and from the world, but we need the international
cooperation.

CHARLES KRAUSE: Mr. President, thank you very much for joining us.

Copyright 1998 MacNeil-Lehrer Productions. All Rights Reserved.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski