THE AMERICAS

Colombia: A newspaper columnist who printed allegations that leading
presidential candidate Alvaro Uribe had drug connections said he had fled
Colombia due to threats.

Fernando Garavito, who writes for the Bogota weekly El Espectador, said he
was now in the United States, but did not specify his whereabouts. Dozens
of other Colombian news reporters and columnists have gone into exile, as
political and drug-related violence escalates in the South American
country's 38-year civil war.

Haiti: Shouting "Down with Aristide," nearly 1,000 supporters of Haiti's
embattled opposition rallied at the ruins of their headquarters in
Port-au-Prince on Friday to proclaim their right to political freedom.

Hopes for an agreement on new elections between the governing party and
opposition were dashed after Dec. 17, when gunmen raided the National
Palace and remained inside for seven hours before fleeing. No officials
were injured, but 10 people were killed in the subsequent violence, during
which supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide burned down the
offices of the opposition group Convergence.

Bolivia: A varied slate of 12 candidates has registered to run for
president, including a former guerrilla, a wealthy mining executive and a
leader of the country's coca farmers.

Currently leading in polls for the June 30 election are Gonzalo Sanchez de
Lozada, president from 1993-97 and head of the Nationalist Revolutionary
Movement, and Jaime Paz Zamora, president from 1989-93 and head of the
social democratic Movement of the Revolutionary Left.

Colombia: The Bush administration said it is seeking $6 million in new
money for Colombia to protect an oil pipeline that has been a frequent
target of terrorist attacks.

This is in addition to a previously announced request of $25 million to
help Colombia combat terrorist kidnappings and $4 million to expand the
reach of Colombia's police to areas previously not under government control.

Mexico: Prosecutors ordered the army to dismantle a secret tunnel that
allegedly helped Mexico's most ruthless drug gang move tons of cocaine and
marijuana across the U.S. border.

Discovered by U.S. drug agents Feb. 27, the 4-foot-wide and 4-foot-high
tunnel ran from a private home in the mountains east of San Diego to a
house in Tecate, a border city in western Baja California state.

The tunnel, 1,000 feet long, was buried 20 feet below ground and had steel
rails for carts.