Pubdate: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA) Copyright: 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. Contact: PO Box 120191, San Diego, CA, 92112-0191 Fax: (619) 293-1440 Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/ Forum: http://www.uniontrib.com/cgi-bin/WebX Author: Larry Rohter, New York Times News Service DESPITE AID, COLOMBIA DRUG WAR IN DISARRAY U.S. About To Provide Over $1 Billion To Effort BOGOTA, Colombia -- The United States is committing more than $1 billion to Colombia's struggle against drug production and trafficking just as the government here is stumbling politically and the national police chief who did the most to win U.S. trust in his country's efforts has stepped down. The U.S. aid package, likely to total $1.3 billion after the Senate approved it Wednesday, foresees reduced reliance on the 115,000-member National Police and places greater emphasis on the armed forces. But the retiring police chief, Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano, and his men would never have been called upon to lead the counternarcotics fight in the past had Washington not harbored grave doubts about the fighting ability and human rights record of the Colombian armed forces. And President Andres Pastrana, approaching the midpoint of his four-year term, is under increasing fire after losing key aides, including his interior minister, chief of staff and chief negotiator with the rebels, who have taken over drug production and made increasing inroads. Meanwhile, public patience with the president's failure to make a deal with leftist guerrillas who have been battling the government for decades is wearing thin. Serrano, 58, was praised by his supporters on Capitol Hill as "the best cop in the world." He stepped down Friday, having announced earlier this month that he was retiring because "I have been to so many police officers' funerals that I can't bear another." About 2,000 police officers have been killed since 1994 in this country, which has a murder rate 8-10 times higher than the United States and, with more than 3,000 abductions in 1999, the highest kidnapping rate in the world. The U.S. State Department calls it one of the most dangerous countries in the world and says common criminals, not just drug dealers, share much of the blame. Many people are convinced that the drug war is being waged at the expense of their own security. "The aggravation of drug trafficking and the armed conflict have translated into the police directing their priorities to the defense of the state and its institutions," said Alvaro Camacho, director of the Institute of Political Studies at the National University. As a result, he said, the police "role of supporting the citizenry has been debilitated" and they "have become an actor in the war, separated from the civilian population." Perhaps because of such sentiments, Colombia's defense minister, Luis Fernando Ramirez, applauds Washington's decision to step up its involvement in Colombia's battle against drugs as "a new beginning." The strategy underlying the aid package, which President Clinton is expected to sign early next month, calls for greater use of the Colombian armed forces in "source interdiction," and it envisions a reduced role for the police. The primary burden of fighting the drug war will now fall on three new anti-narcotics battalions created in the armed forces with U.S. money and training. Ramirez, in an interview at his Defense Ministry headquarters Friday, dismissed any doubts that these new units are ready to do battle with the leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary units that now play dominant roles in the drug trade. Who does the job? "The United States has a dilemma," he said. "Either it can give us the tools and let us do the job, or the international community takes charge of a problem that is growing out of hand. I think the United States has made the correct decision by giving us the tools we need to do our work. "I see a transition taking place without much trauma," Ramirez said of Serrano's retirement. "It is basically the same team of generals in anti-narcotics and the other areas, very much trained by Serrano and very much in line with the way we have been working" since Pastrana took office nearly two years ago. However, Serrano is stepping down as many of the spectacular gains made against drug trafficking early in his 51/2-year tenure have been erased. Cocaine production has more than doubled in the last five years despite a U.S.-financed program of spraying from the air to eradicate coca crops -- a program that is supposed to expand significantly if U.S. Blackhawk and Huey helicopters, the most costly items in the new aid package, begin arriving in the next few months. Serrano's personal popularity, based on his folksy manner and image of integrity, had dissolved much of the popular discontent over lawlessness and had bolstered U.S. confidence in Colombia's ability to fight its end of the narcotics war -- a war that is partly fed by drug use and addiction in the United States. General led raids The general organized and led the raids that smashed the Cali cartel and imprisoned scores of other drug traffickers on Washington's most-wanted list. He also dismissed 11,400 of his own officers, turning what had been a corrupt and often brutal force into a tough and trim fighting unit that the United States cultivated as a welcome alternative to an incompetent army and the cartel-financed presidency of Ernesto Samper, Pastrana's predecessor. "Serrano delivered the goods and in many ways was a moral leader for Colombia at a time the country badly needed one, and he was tireless and entirely committed to the anti-narcotics fight," said Myles Frechette, who was the U.S. ambassador here during the late 1990s. "We had so much trust in him that we dealt with him as if he were one of us." Indeed, Serrano's standing in Washington has remained so high that his superiors, to their dismay and occasional annoyance, have often been eclipsed. When Pastrana visited Washington last year to lobby for U.S. aid and was rebuked by Republican members of Congress for not having brought Serrano with him, he had to remind his hosts, "I am the president of Colombia." As Serrano's successor, Pastrana has named Gen. Luis Ernesto Gilibert, 57. The grandson of a French police officer sent to Colombia in 1891 to organize the National Police, Gilibert has a personal commitment to the institution that is unquestioned, but he was described by a European diplomat as being "more cautious and less charismatic" than Serrano. 'Adjustment pains' "One of Serrano's great talents," Frechette said, "is that he really knew how to deal with Americans and had an understanding of the international situation that the military still doesn't have." At least at first, Frechette predicted, "there will be adjustment pains" for the Drug Enforcement Administration in adapting to a different operating style under Gilibert, "who is very competent but doesn't know how to handle Americans as Serrano did." Since his appointment was announced, Gilibert has made it clear that he wants the police force to concentrate more on making Colombians feel more secure at home, at work and on the streets. The implication is that there will be less of a focus on the fight against drug trafficking, as Gilibert acknowledged in remarks to reporters here last week. "That doesn't mean we are going to forget about this theme," he said. "But at these moments there are other priorities." Currently, Ramirez said, "We have 195 municipalities in Colombia that are without a police presence" because "their barracks have been destroyed by guerrillas" in armed confrontations. With political pressure building on Pastrana not to step up the drug war to the detriment of public security, "We are going to have to make an extra effort in the Colombian budget" to support conventional police duties, he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D