Pubdate: Mon, 19 Feb 2001
Source: Reuters
Copyright: 2001 Reuters Limited
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Colombia (Reports about Colombia)

U.S. SENATORS TO VISIT ECUADOR TO TALK PLAN COLOMBIA

QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) - Five U.S. senators will visit Ecuador on Tuesday 
to discuss a $1.3 billion U.S.-backed program that aims to fight drug 
trafficking in Colombia and its impact on this nation's border region.

John McCain, an Arizona Republican and former presidential candidate, will 
lead the delegation to Quito to discuss "Plan Colombia," which critics fear 
is pushing Colombia's 40-year armed conflict across the 370-mile border the 
nations share.

The visit comes just days after Ecuador's army discovered a second cocaine 
processing lab amid jungle brush that according to television reports 
produced 551 pounds of the drug a week. The army destroyed a similar lab a 
month earlier.

Ecuador Foreign Affairs Minister Heinz Moeller said a goal of the meeting 
was to discuss funding for development along the border with Colombia, an 
area victim to recent threats by unidentified groups from that country.

Moeller said last week that Ecuador had only received $8 million of some 
$40 million promised during Bill Clinton's presidency.

The group, which also includes Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat; 
Fred Thompson, a Tennessee Republican; Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican; 
and Lincoln Chafee, a Rhode Island Republican; will meet with Moeller and 
Ecuador President Gustavo Noboa, according to the U.S. Embassy in Quito.

Dodd, who said he voted in favor of Plan Colombia aid last year, said in a 
statement last month that he was concerned about the regionalization of the 
conflict in Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela and Brazil.

Colombia has long been ravaged by a war among leftist guerrilla groups, 
rightist paramilitary forces and that nation's armed forces.

Local government officials in the jungle provinces of Sucumbios and 
Orellana, across the border from Colombia's coca-growing Putumayo, have 
called for a strike and road blockades on Wednesday to protest the lack of 
development and infrastructure.

More than 500 Ecuadoreans living in jungle hamlets along the border have 
fled their homes in the past two weeks following threats by unidentified 
groups from Colombia.

This impoverished Andean nation of 12.4 million people is experiencing an 
economic crisis, with annual inflation topping 91 percent last year and 
only 25 percent of those capable of holding a full-time job.

Many Ecuadoreans criticize the government's decision to cede use of a 
military base to the U.S. Air Force for anti-narcotics surveillance, 
fearing it will spark retaliation by Colombian groups that profit from the 
drugs trade.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager