Pubdate: Tue, 29 Feb 2000
Source: Minneapolis Star-Tribune (MN)
Copyright: 2000 Star Tribune
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Author: Alan Fram, Associated Press Writer

COLOMBIA DRUG WAR TO TAKE 5 YRS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It will probably take five years for intensified U.S. 
efforts against Colombian narcotics traffickers to succeed, the Clinton 
administration' s top anti-drug official told Congress on Tuesday.

Gen. Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control 
Policy, offered the assessment as he and other administration officials 
defended President Clinton' s proposed $1.6 billion plan to fight coca 
producers and their heavily armed guerrilla allies in the South American 
country and its neighbors.

Though some of the money would be for continued anti-drug efforts in nearby 
Bolivia and Peru, the bulk of it would go to Colombia, which U.S. officials 
say is by far the world' s leading cocaine producer.

So far, despite support by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., Clinton' s 
plan has run into significant skepticism in Congress. Critics say they fear 
the proposal could lead the United States into another open-ended, 
Vietnam-like intervention, and that the money would be better spent trying 
to control the demand coming from American drug users.

" I personally think we have to think of it as a five-year effort, " 
McCaffrey told members of the House Appropriations Committee' s 
subcommittee that oversees foreign aid. By then, he said he believed there 
would be " substantial reductions of drug production."

Subcommittee Chairman Sonny Callahan, R-Ala., said that while he supports 
the administration proposal, it is in serious trouble in Congress because 
of unanswered questions about long-term strategy and other concerns.

" If the bill were to be brought up before the House today, it wouldn't 
pass the House, " Callahan said.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the subcommittee' s ranking Democrat, said 
she opposed the current plan and warned that its approval would mean " a 
five to 10-year commitment which will cost U.S. taxpayers in excess of $5 
billion."

Colombian government efforts to combat coca growers and the 25, 000 leftist 
rebels and right-wing paramilitary groups who protect them have had little 
success recently.

The $1.6 billion Clinton wants, to be spent this year and next, would be 
used to provide Colombia with 63 helicopters and for training, intelligence 
assistance and other aid to the country' s military. It also includes money 
to entice Colombian coca farmers to produce other crops and to buttress the 
country' s judicial system.

With some lawmakers warning that the proposal could result in American 
troops being killed, McCaffrey said only Colombian forces would carry out 
military operations. Currently, there are up to 200 American military 
personnel in Colombia, a number that varies daily, McCaffrey said.

" There is no thinking at all, zero, for U.S. military intervention in 
Colombia, " he said.

In Colombia, a rebel commander declared: " Plan Colombia, as we understand 
it, is no more than a way ... for hawks in the United States to become more 
deeply involved in our internal affairs."

Speaking in a guerrilla-held area of southern Colombia, Raul Reyes of FARC, 
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, said the plan is " a 
declaration of war by the United States. What Plan Colombia does is get 
more Colombians involved in the war."

About 90 percent of the cocaine used in the United States is grown in 
Colombia or flows through the country, McCaffrey said. And while coca 
production in Peru and Bolivia has dropped in recent years, it has grown in 
Colombia from 230 metric tons in 1995 to 520 last year, he said.

Clinton's proposal is part of a spending request he has made to Congress 
for the current fiscal year that has grown to $5.2 billion.

About half the total is for U.S. operations in Kosovo and the Balkans, 
while much of the rest is aid for American victims of last September's 
Hurricane Floyd and other disasters and for international debt forgiveness.