Pubdate: Wed, 30 Aug 2000
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2000 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071
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Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author: Karen DeYoung, Washington Post Staff Writer

COLOMBIA READIES FOR CLINTON

CARTAGENA, Colombia, Aug. 29 - As a student of U.S. politics, Colombian 
President Andres Pastrana knows the importance of bipartisan 
support--particularly in a U.S. government with different parties in charge 
of Congress and the White House.

"It's important to show that the [U.S.] anti-drug policy is a bipartisan 
policy," Pastrana said in an interview today. Other than a brief private 
meeting with President Clinton, all events during Wednesday's presidential 
visit here will include the 11-member congressional delegation that will 
accompany the president aboard Air Force One.

At the head of the group are House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and 
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign 
Relations Committee.

The large delegation also offers Pastrana an opportunity to twist arms on a 
subject nearly as important to him--perhaps more important in the long 
run--than the $1.3 billion U.S. anti-drug aid package that Clinton will 
symbolically deliver. "This is an opportunity to work toward a trade 
agreement with the United States that we can complete before the end of the 
year," Pastrana said.

Although Colombia's dire economic situation has improved somewhat since 
last year, Pastrana would like to cement his country's ever closer 
relationship with the United States with an accord that would give 
Colombian products easier access to U.S. markets. Bogota failed this year 
to become included in the revamping of the U.S. Caribbean Basin Initiative. 
If Bogota cannot be grandfathered into that free-trade accord, Pastrana 
said, he is "looking for a bilateral trade agreement" or admission into the 
North American Free Trade Agreement.

Clinton, in a speech broadcast tonight to the Colombian people, did not 
mention trade. He touched on more immediate issues involving the anti-drug 
aid package that has been the subject of popular concern and, Pastrana and 
Clinton agree, confusion here over what is widely considered a plan for 
increased U.S. military assistance against armed guerrilla groups 
threatening the Colombian government.

While nearly 80 percent of the U.S. package will pay for military equipment 
and training to counter drug trafficking, both governments argue that it 
remains only a small part of an overall $7.5 billion package--called Plan 
Colombia--funded by Colombia and other nations to help peasant coca and 
poppy growers switch to other crops and to strengthen Colombia's democratic 
institutions.

Clinton acknowledged U.S. interest in stemming the traffic that floods the 
United States with cocaine and heroin and funds left-wing guerrillas and 
right-wing paramilitary groups here. But, he said, "please do not 
misunderstand our purpose. We have no military objective. We do not believe 
your conflict has a military solution. We support the peace process. Our 
approach is both pro-peace and anti-drug."

The largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or 
FARC, has denounced what it calls U.S. military intervention in its war 
against the government. But Pastrana said "the FARC has nothing to fear 
from Plan Colombia. They say they're not involved in drug trafficking . . . 
that they're against drug trafficking. Plan Colombia is against drug 
trafficking. So if they mean what they say, they have nothing to fear."

The FARC has said it is willing to eradicate coca crops in the 
Switzerland-sized zone it occupies in south-central Colombia. "Here's a 
proposal for them," Pastrana said. "They have said they're willing to 
eradicate drugs. . . . Why don't they start in the zone?"

Responding to charges from U.S. and Colombian human rights groups that the 
Colombian military should be ineligible for U.S. aid because of its record 
of human rights abuses and paramilitary ties, Pastrana said progress has 
been made, and more is coming. "We have the facts and the figures to show 
we have moved forward," he said. "We know we have a lot more to do."

In addition to pledging more military pressure against the paramilitary 
groups, he said his government is prepared to pursue Colombian civilians 
who finance them.

"It's not only that there are relations between some in the military and 
the paramilitary groups," Pastrana said. "The problem is who is paying for 
them. We're going to go after those who are financing them and hold them 
responsible, too."

Despite the size of the U.S. delegation--which includes Secretary of State 
Madeleine K. Albright and Attorney General Janet Reno--Clinton will spend 
only eight hours in Cartagena. In addition to the government meetings, 
members of the delegation will visit the city's port, where they will meet 
with widows of police officers and soldiers killed in action.

Before leaving, the delegation will walk a block or two through the 
16th-century city, ending at the central Plaza Bolivar. Workers and 
painters putting the finishing touches on Cartagena's cleanup jostled there 
today with Colombian police officers and U.S. agents who are part of a vast 
security operation to protect Clinton.
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