DATE=1/21/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=COLOMBIA / US (L)
NUMBER=2-258302
BYLINE=JIM RANDLE
DATELINE=PENTAGON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Top U-S officials are in Colombia working out
details of a proposal to greatly increase military and
other aid to the troubled nation. But a critic of U-S
drug policy says the one-point-6 billion-dollar plan
is more likely to increase bloodshed than cut cocaine
exports to the United States. V-O-A's Jim Randle
reports a-soon-to-be-released C-I-A report says more
cocaine than ever is growing in Colombia.
TEXT: The U-S delegation includes Secretary of the
Army Louis Caldera and deputy Drug Policy Chief Thomas
Umberg. The officials say the aid package is designed
to help Colombian forces regain control of the major
coca-producing areas in the southern part of the
country. Coca is refined into cocaine in clandestine
laboratories for shipment to the United States and
other nations.
Washington hopes training two more battalions of
Colombian troops to attack and seize drugs and
laboratories and providing dozens of helicopters to
move the soldiers around the rugged countryside will
be an effective part of a strategy to cut the flow of
illegal drugs out of Colombia over the next 18 months.
The U-S Congress must still consider the proposal and
authorize the aid.
The discussion comes as U-S officials say the Central
Intelligence Agency is putting the finishing touches
on a report that shows the number of hectares planted
in illegal crops in Colombia has increased sharply
over the past few years, in spite of drug control
efforts.
Critic Larry Birns says the aid package is misguided
because it will `further militarize' and `broaden and
deepen' U-S involvement in Colombia's overlapping wars
against leftist guerrilla groups and drug cartels.
Mr. Birns heads the `Council on Hemispheric Affairs'
in Washington, a private group that monitors and
analyzes U-S policies in Latin America.
Current U-S policy allows anti-drug actions, but
forbids fighting political insurgents in Latin
America.
But experts say it nearly impossible to make such
distinctions in Colombia's jungles because some rebels
finance their military operations by collecting
massive fees to protect drug operations.
Mr. Birns says in this complex, dangerous situation,
U-S aid could boost the level of violence, and suck
American troops into a morass.
/// Birns act ///
I then see more and more trainers being sent
down from the United States. One could envisage
that the guerrillas will go after these trainers
and kill a few. That will further enrage the
United States, thus escalating U-S involvement,
and we will be involved in a battle with a well-
trained, well-deployed 15-thousand member
guerilla force. That sounds to me like big
problems.
/// end act ///
U-S officials have said to the extent that the
guerrilla groups are benefiting from the drug trade,
they could be subject to attack by the newly-trained
and equipped anti-drug forces.
Fighting in Colombia has taken at least 30-thousand
lives in the last 36 years. (Signed)
NEB/PT
(Signed).
21-Jan-2000 15:02 PM EDT (21-Jan-2000 2002 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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