Pubdate: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 Source: Houston Chronicle (TX) Copyright: 1999 Houston Chronicle Contact: http://www.chron.com/ Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html Author: Douglas Farah, Washington Post MORE AID LIKELY FOR COLOMBIA Leader must first step up drug war WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration is preparing to greatly step up military and economic aid to Colombia in response to fears that the growing strength of drug-financed guerrillas there could undercut counternarcotics efforts across the Andean region. Senior U.S. officials warned President Andres Pastrana last week that he risks losing U.S. support if he makes further concessions to the insurgents in an effort to restart stalled peace negotiations, said sources familiar with the talks. But the officials, White House drug czar Barry R. McCaffrey and Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering, also told Pastrana the United States will sharply increase aid if he develops a plan to strengthen the military, halt the nation's economic free fall and fight drug trafficking. Part of the aid will be $3 billion in International Monetary Fund loans, with some additional direct U.S. military aid. Pickering, briefing reporters here, said he asked Pastrana to present his plan by the middle of September to seek funding from Congress this year. While specific aid figures will not be discussed until Pastrana presents his plan, senior officials and congressional sources said it would be hundreds of millions of dollars. Colombian defense officials last month requested $500 million in additional military aid over the next two years. U.S. security assistance stands at $289 million this year, making Colombia the third-largest recipient of such U.S. aid after Israel and Egypt. The United States is training a 950-man Colombian army counternarcotics battalion, the first such specialized unit in the military, whose primary objective will be to regain control of guerrilla-controlled territory. Pentagon and State Department officials said they recently agreed to try to provide the group with 18 Huey UH-1N helicopters. The same sources said the United States is planning on funding at least two more such battalions, a move that would boost U.S. aid by tens of millions of dollars. "Colombia is a disaster, and I don't see any way around that," said McCaffrey, a retired general who recently proposed spending an additional $1 billion in the Andean drug-producing region, with about half of the money going to Colombia. Colombia reportedly produces 80 percent of the world's cocaine and about 70 percent of the heroin found in the United States. Two Marxist guerrilla groups -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, with about 15,000 combatants, and the National Liberation Army, with about 5,000 combatants -- control about 40 percent of the national territory and receive hundreds of millions of dollars a year from protecting drug-trafficking routes, airstrips and laboratories. In addition, about 7,000 right-wing paramilitary troops, who also derive millions of dollars from cocaine trafficking, control about 15 percent of the national territory. Human rights groups say tilting aid toward the military is dangerous. "In a world with a lot of bad policy options toward Colombia, the United States is taking the worst one," said Winifred Tate of the Washington Office on Latin America. "By strengthening the military, you are strengthening an abusive, corrupt institution that has resisted civil control and human rights reforms." - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck