US DRUG-SPRAYING PLANE CRASHES IN COLOMBIA; CAUSE PROBED

BOGOTA (AP)--A U.S. drug-spraying plane crashed Sunday in northeast Colombia,
the army said. Authorities were investigating whether the crash was an
accident, or if rebels operating in the area shot the plane down.

"We're not discarding any possibility yet," army Gen. Jairo Duvan Pineda told
RCN Television. "What we do know is there is very bad weather in the area."

The pilot, who is from Costa Rica, hasn't been found yet.

Rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, are fighting the
army, another rebel group and outlawed paramilitary fighters for control of the
area, called Catatumbo, which is filled with cocaine-producing coca.

Colombia is the world's biggest producer of cocaine. The coca crops generate
huge profits for the illegal groups.

The U.S. government has given billions of dollars in aid and training to the
Colombian military to support its nearly four-decade war against leftist rebels
and to wipe out cocaine and heroin production.

The massive U.S.-financed fumigation campaign of coca has hit Colombia's
illicit drug industry hard, cutting coca crop land by one-third in seven
months, according to a recent U.N. report.