SOME SAY U.S. GOAL IN COLOMBIA IS LESS ABOUT DRUG FIGHT

Three years ago,the White House increased aid to battle the burgeoning
rebel strength.

Tres esquinas Military Base, Colombia- The scene is straight out of
Hollywood. A ruggedly handsome, tough-talking general in military fatigues
points to large maps of coca fields, cocaine labs and guerrilla strongholds
in this jungle outpost in southwestern Colombia. The maps are marked
"secret" in red marker.

As a torrential rain batters the camouflaged tent - which houses the
general, other members of the nation's military high command and three
visiting U.S. Army officers - soldiers along the nearby Orteguaza River
stand guard against an enemy they cannot see.

After his briefing, Gen. Rafael Hernandez Lopez, 55, leads his guests and
his charges on river patrol, and as the military gunboats race along,
slapping against the muddy waters of the Orteguaza, the soldiers open fire
on the jungle with machine guns mounted on board.

Although this exercise is merely for show, the reality is that Colombia is
at war, and, according to U.S. intelligence, the enemy is gaining. It was
here three months ago, in the region of Caqueta, that the military suffered
its worst defeat at the hands of Marxist rebels since the guerrillas took
up arms in the mid-1960s. Sixty-seven soldiers were killed.

Without outside help, military analysts worry, the burgeoning strength of
the rebels could force the collapse of Latin America's oldest democracy.

Enter the Clinton administration. Three years ago, the White House began to
increase military aid to Colombia. Published reports indicated Washington
was reacting to guerrilla advances against the Colombian military.

It is also a matter of concern that the conflict could disrupt oil
operations in neighboring Venezuela, America's biggest foreign oil
supplier, as well as threaten the nearby Panama Canal.

U.S. officials insist they increased aid to Colombia's military because of
the larger role it began to play in the war on drugs.

So sensitive is the subject that the commander of Colombia's armed forces,
Gen. Manuel Jose Bonett, denied that the military was getting any help from
the United States, even to help fight the drug war.

The aid money, U.S. officials say, is to be used exclusively to fight the
drug war, but it can be hard to distinguish between narcotics traffickers
and leftist guerrillas because of the role the rebels play in the drug
trade.

Indeed, Hernandez characterized the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia,
known by its initials in Spanish as FARC, as "the largest drug cartel in
Latin America."

While U.S. and Colombian officials said the rebels "rent out" their
"protection" services to drug barons, critics in Washington argue that the
role of the guerrillas in the drug trade has been blown out of proportion
to justify the shift in U.S. policy.

Colombia's military is getting about $100 million a year in U.S. aid, an
increase of $75 million from three years ago, according to the State
Department. An average of 93 U.S. military personnel a year are also
assigned to the program. The aid is contingent on meeting human-rights
standards.

According to the Pentagon, Colombia's insurgents, who total about 20,000,
are probably the world's best-equipped, best-financed "terrorist force."

The rebels rake in an estimated $600 million a year through drug
trafficking, extortion, robbery and kidnapping. It is estimated that the
Colombian drug cartels supply about 80 percent of the cocaine in the United
States.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)