WHO'S RUNNING COLOMBIA?

Colombia's avowedly hard-line President-elect Alvaro Uribe paid a low-
profile visit to Washington last week that seemed successful but actually
sowed suspicion. Meeting with Republican House members who will influence
the flow of U.S. aid to Colombia, Uribe was asked two key questions. He
responded with two disquieting non-answers.

The questions: Would Uribe have a place in his administration for Gen. Jose
Serrano, the heroic former national police chief? Would he appoint to high
office Pedro Juan Moreno, a shadowy figure who had run-ins with U.S. and
Colombian authorities over importing precursor chemicals of a kind that
produce illegal narcotics? Although the president-elect was noncommittal on
both scores, he implied there was no place for Serrano but there would be a
prominent post for Moreno.

That dims hopes in Washington that the Harvard-educated Uribe is the leader
to halt Colombia's evolution as a narcoterrorist state disgorging illegal
drugs to the North American market. Uribe won a landslide election as a
tough guy, promising to abandon the failed peace offensive of outgoing
President Andres Pastrana and determined to defeat the narcotics-financed
leftist guerrillas. Now, there is fear of a return to the "Boys of
Medellin" and the corrupt regime of Pastrana's predecessor, Ernesto Samper.
Now, it is asked: Who runs Colombia?

Uribe's victory tour of Washington last week, intended to build support for
doubling U.S. aid to Colombia, was meticulously designed: no contacts with
the news media, and largely ceremonial meetings with senior government
officials. This careful orchestration was disturbed, however, when he met
behind closed doors on Capitol Hill with some 20 Republican House members
belonging to the Speaker's Drug Task Force.

He called for resumed aerial interdiction of drug flights, and asserted it
was "not time to worry about rights of delinquents; it's time for the
rights of the people." After a congratulatory call from President Bush, he
said he told his wife, "I've found someone even more hard-line than me."

Eyebrows were raised when Uribe pushed "Drugs for Trees"--paying each "poor
person" $2,000 a year to plant trees instead of growing coca or opium.

Nevertheless, the president-elect was doing well until Rep. Bob Barr of
Georgia took the floor.

"What position in your administration do you have for Gen. Serrano," asked
Barr, "after he gave you an important endorsement that put you over the top
when you needed it?" Uribe replied that he admires Serrano as "an important
patriot," adding: "I will consider his advice and will talk to him about
his role in my government." That sounded like a brushoff for someone whose
support saved Uribe from a runoff.

Barr next told Uribe: "We are concerned to hear that you are considering
appointing Pedro Juan Moreno to be your national adviser when he has had
his visa pulled." Tension in the room deepened as Uribe carefully chose his
words. He said Moreno "was secretary of the Interior when I was governor of
Antioquia, and he did a very good job. I will consider your comments and
make the right decisions at the right time." That, too, was a brushoff.

Uribe minimized the intimacy of his relationship with Moreno, his political
alter ego, and did not mention Moreno's problems with the law.

Moreno's GMP Chemical Products was listed by U.S. drug enforcement
officials as the largest Colombian importer of potassium permanganate (a
precursor chemical used in cocaine production). U.S. and Colombian
officials seized three such shipments for GMP from China in 1997 and 1998.
Moreno has denied the chemicals were used for cocaine production.

Reports about Moreno are hard to obtain from U.S. government officials.
Republican congressmen cannot get straight information whether his visa has
been lifted or frozen. In frustration, five senior GOP House members
(including committee chairmen Henry Hyde and Dan Burton) last Thursday
night wrote Secretary of State Colin Powell to find out.

U.S. diplomats in Bogota urged Republican staffers to leave Moreno alone,
for fear of alienating Uribe. The Republican House members disagree. With
the stakes high and demands for U.S. involvement rising, Congress should
look more deeply into the new Colombian president's outlook-- beyond his
hard-line rhetoric and his praise of George W. Bush.