COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT-ELECT TO BE BRIEFED ON U.S. POLICY SHIFT

WASHINGTON - In a dramatic and historic shift, the U.S. government is about
to raise the stakes on its involvement in Colombia, changing its focus to
include fighting guerrillas as well as combating the drug trade.

President-elect Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, who began three days of talks in
Washington on Tuesday, will be briefed on the changes during his visit.
He'll also feel intense pressure from U.S. officials who want Colombia to
pony up more of its own money and soldiers to combat rampant lawlessness.

Almost without exception, analysts believe Uribe's hard-line platforms,
combined with the U.S. policy shift, will bring about a near-term increase
in bloodshed in Colombia.

''The security situation is going to get worse before it gets better,''
said Stephen Johnson, a Latin America policy analyst at the Heritage
Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Earlier this year, the Bush administration asked Congress to lift
restrictions that limit U.S. assistance, including scores of helicopters,
only to counter-narcotics efforts. If granted, Colombia could employ
U.S.-provided aircraft and other assistance in its war against two
guerrilla groups and an outlaw paramilitary force.

The House approved the request, which was included in a massive $30 billion
worldwide counter-terrorism bill, on May 24 and the Senate followed suit on
June 7. Conferees from the two chambers are resolving differences in the
two bills, and may finish their work by the end of June.

Equally as important, the Bush administration is mulling other broad
changes in U.S. policy toward Colombia, including a plan to share
intelligence with Colombia to help it target and kill senior leaders of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who have eluded capture for
decades.

''It will change the nature of the struggle,'' one senior Bush
administration official said, adding that the plan is ''to disrupt the
command and control of the FARC leadership'' and keep commanders constantly
on the run, perhaps feuding among themselves as pursuit intensifies.

Pentagon officials foresee a ''strike and hold'' military strategy to help
Colombian soldiers move back into huge swaths of territory where guerrillas
and right-wing paramilitary forces have free rein and regain ''effective
sovereignty,'' the official said.

Uribe met with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Tuesday afternoon and was
to consult with Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle in the early evening.
Today, he'll speak with Secretary of State Colin Powell. National Security
Advisor Condoleezza Rice receives him at the White House on Thursday,
before Uribe heads on to Canada and Europe.

It is on Capitol Hill where Uribe may get the most mixed reception.

A breakdown in peace talks in Colombia in February convinced many U.S.
lawmakers that Washington must expand its role in Colombia, but some
legislators now question Colombia's own commitment to pay for and prosecute
the war.

''Everybody from the Colombian desk officers to Powell, to the National
Security Council to the Pentagon, everyone is going to hammer home to Uribe
this message: Don't wait for the U.S. Marines to get there. They are not
coming,'' said a Senate Republican staff member, who insisted on anonymity.

Colombia has received nearly $2 billion in U.S. assistance over the past
three years, making it by far the largest U.S. recipient of aid in this
hemisphere, and the White House has proposed $538.2 million for the next
fiscal year, beginning Oct. 1.

''There have been many verbal commitments [from Colombia], but too little
action, and only meager results,'' said Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont
Democrat who is chairman of the foreign operations panel of the key Senate
Appropriations Committee. ``This needs to be a partnership, especially as
the Bush administration continues to ask for more money to expand our
involvement there.''

Some legislators now feel Colombia spends too little of its national budget
on defense, only forces its poor people to fulfill military service, and
has grown lax against corruption.

Uribe, who takes office Aug. 7, has pledged to double the size of the
Colombian armed forces and set up a one million-strong civilian defense
force. Some observers voice skepticism.

''Double the size of the army? Where's he going to get the money for
that?'' asked a knowledgeable congressional staffer, who noted that
Colombia never fulfilled commitments for social spending under its
five-year Plan Colombia counter-narcotics program adopted in 2000.

Uribe is certain to get an earful of questions about a scandal over $2
million in missing U.S. assistance that has already implicated some 60
members of the Colombian National Police, including senior officers in the
anti-narcotics squad.

He's also likely to be grilled over what a General Accounting Office
summary describes as a lack of cooperation by the Colombian armed forces in
fighting narcotics trafficking.

The one-page GAO summary, obtained by The Herald, says the Colombian army
was supposed to provide 250 pilots for training on 14 Black Hawk and 30
Super Huey helicopters given to Colombia but ``has been slow in providing
the number of trainees needed.''

Moreover, the air force has failed to train pilots for the Black Hawks and
makes ''very little use'' of U.S.-provided A-37 aircraft ''to interdict
drug trafficking operations,'' the summary says.