CLINTON LAMENTS AMERICAS' PROBLEMS

SANTIAGO, Chile, April 18—On the inaugural day of the second Summit of the
Americas, President Clinton heralded the United States' new "partnership"
with Latin America, along with the region's economic and democratic
transition in the 1990s. But at the same time, he issued a critical
analysis of the lingering social problems that leaders here are attempting
to grapple with at this weekend's summit and beyond.

"Poverty throughout the hemisphere is still too high, income disparity is
too great, civil society too fragile, justice systems too weak, too many
people still lack the education and skills necessary to succeed in the new
economy," Clinton told the hemisphere's 33 other leaders -- all except
Cuban President Fidel Castro. "In short, too few feel the change working
for them."

Clinton's comments cut to the heart of something that has been overlooked
generally during his state visit to the summit site in Santiago, the
Chilean capital, that began Thursday. Despite how far Latin America has
come politically and economically, critical problems still plague the
region's fragile democracies.

Although Latin America has experienced overall economic growth of 15
percent since the first Summit of the Americas in 1994 in Miami, it still
has a disparity between rich and poor that is among the greatest in the
world. And while there have been leaps from dictatorships into democracies,
trouble spots and lapses in the democratic tradition remain throughout the
region. Meanwhile, the narcotics trade is still flourishing in countries
such as Colombia and Bolivia, despite attempts to combat the problem.

In efforts to address those issues, several initiatives were agreed to
today -- and will be signed in a formal accord Sunday. Clinton agreed to
launch "security measures" for Latin America including a "multilateral
counter-drug alliance" that would attempt to tighten law enforcement on
money laundering and help fight an increase in drug consumption.

National security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger said the measure was not
meant to supplant the United States' policy of "certifying" nations for
drug cooperation. Instead, the new measure would "supplement" it.

"Let's see how it evolves -- the object of both is to increase and
intensify cooperation" in the drug war, Berger said. "This will be another
instrument at our disposal."

The measures to be signed in Sunday's communique, however, basically lay
the groundwork for more specific agreements -- and several contained vague
language. The nations agreed, for instance, to improve extradition
procedures for narcotics-related crimes, but no legislation was suggested
that would make such extraditions mandatory.

The first day of the summit also focused on improving Latin American
literacy rates. The plan includes a doubling of new loans from the
Inter-American Development Bank to $3 billion, and a 50 percent increase in
money from the World Bank to $3 billion. The money would be used to improve
teacher quality, reduce class sizes and increase technology.

"A lot of these democracies are very new, and the gap in education is very
wide," said U.S. Education Secretary Richard W. Riley. "I think it is
noteworthy [that] virtually all these countries have placed education as a
top priority."

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