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                            THE WHITE HOUSE
                     Office of the Press Secretary
                         (Cartagena, Colombia)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                    August 30, 2000
                               FACT SHEET
           Cooperation Between the United States and Colombia
                        on Counter-Drug Programs
The increased U.S. assistance for Colombia provided in the Emergency
Supplemental Act, as enacted in the Military Construction Appropriations
Act of 2001, includes substantial funding for counter-drug programs.
The major counter-drug components of this initiative are:
--   $442 million for support to counter-drug operations in the
coca-growing regions of southern Colombia, to include the training and
equipping of three special counter-narcotics battalions of the Colombian
Army that will provide security for law enforcement operations by the
Colombian National Police;
--   $466 million for enhancement of the capability to interdict
shipments of illicit drugs from the Andean region, to include radar,
aircraft and airfield upgrades and support for counter-drug intelligence
gathering in Colombia;
--   $116 million for direct support to the Colombian National Police,
to include equipment and operating expenses needed to expand the illicit
crop eradication program targeting coca and poppy fields.
U.S. assistance for Colombian counter-drug programs is fully in line
with our $18.5 billion National Drug Control Strategy, which outlines a
comprehensive attack on the illicit drug trade.  Its goals and related
programs include eliminating production at the source, interdicting drug
shipments and prosecuting traffickers, and reducing U.S. domestic
consumption through $6 billion worth of prevention, treatment, and
rehabilitation programs.
This increased assistance for Colombia also reflects significant recent
trends in the Andean source zone.  Andean net coca cultivation and
potential cocaine production continued to decline in 1999 and are now at
the lowest levels since 1987.  Overall Andean net coca cultivation
declined to 183,000 hectares in 1999, four percent less than the 1998
figure, and 15 percent less than in 1995.  Potential cocaine production
fell to 765 metric tons, a drop of seven percent from the 1998 figure,