Guerrillas, Paramilitaries Weakening Bogota's Control

WASHINGTON - After Congress approved $1.3 billion in military and other aid to Colombia this summer, a Colombian friend of political consultant Peter Schechter added this heading to his e-mails: "From the Mekong Delta."

Mr. Schechter doesn't agree with the suggestion that Colombia could become another Vietnam, where sending U.S. military aid and advisers to help fight Communist guerrillas led to intervention by U.S. troops.

But Mr. Schechter, who formerly represented the government of Colombia in Washington, says his friend's e-mail heading reflects growing fears that the government of President Andres Pastrana is losing control of the country to left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers.

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