Arubans Vote On New Government

DRUG TRADE, EXTRADITION LEGISLATION CONTRIBUTED TO COALITION'S COLLAPSE

ORANJESTAD, Aruba Cocaine, heroin and their illicit profits brought down
the government in this small Caribbean island and drew Arubans to the
polls Friday to vote for a new one.

Among the major players in the election is a wealthy Aruban family that is
fighting the extradition to the United States of two members charged with
laundering profits from Colombian drug lords.

President Clinton cited the Mansur dynasty when he placed Aruba, just an
hour's ride by speedboat from Columbia and Venezuela, on a list of major
drug transit and money laundering countries last year. In Aruba's free
trade zone, Clinton said, the Mansurs own and operate many firms, and
cocaine is smuggled in cargo containers that never are inspected.

Aruban legislators, mindful of U.S. interests that include 400,000 of the
700,000 tourists who visit the island annually, acted to combat the
narcotics trade. But when they passed a law allowing extradition to the
United States, the governing coalition collapsed in October.

The next day, a deal was made between Liberal Party leader Glenbert Croes,
the minority partner who broke ties with the governing Aruba People's
Party, main opposition leader Nelson Oduber of the Electoral People's
Movement and banker Carlo Mansur.

They agreed to form an interim government that excluded the People's Party
and made Mansur finance minister. News of the deal created an uproar
because of the moneylaundering charges against two of Mansur's cousins, so
elections were called six months early.

Opposition politicians have accused Prime Minister Jan Hendryk Eman of
pandering to foreign pressure, a charge he denies.

"We have no doubt in our minds that what we did was the right thing to
stand strong against the threat of international crime in our area," Eman
said.

Meanwhile, the Mansurs called in a yearsold debt of $2.3 million that Eman
owed the family's Interbank. That would have bankrupted Eman, and persons
declaring bankruptcy are not allowed to run for office. But a court
suspended the Mansurs' lawsuit indefinitely.

Winning just one seat would give the Liberal Party the balance of power if
none of the other parties wins the 11 seats needed to form a government.
Croes' Liberals won two seats in the 1994 elections, Eman's party 10 seats
and Oduber's nine.

Aruba, which broke away from the Netherlands Antilles, is a separate member
of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, equal in political stature to the
Caribbean island group and Holland.