Pubdate: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 Source: International Herald-Tribune (France) Copyright: International Herald Tribune 2000 Contact: 181, Avenue Charles de Gaulle, 92521 Neuilly Cedex, France Fax: (33) 1 41 43 93 38 Website: http://www.iht.com/ Author: Karen DeYoung, Washington Post Service Bookmark: additional articles on Colombia are available at http://www.mapinc.org/latin.htm CLINTON WILL VISIT A COLOMBIA WHERE DRUGS ARE JUST ONE OF MANY WOES BOGOTA - President Bill Clinton is to arrive Wednesday in Colombia to emphasize U.S. support for President Andres Pastrana and symbolically hand over a check for $1.3 billion in new anti-drug aid. But neither the personal backing nor the aid is likely to do much, in the short term at least, to address the domestic problems Mr. Pastrana faces at the midpoint of a presidency that has been on a steady downward trajectory since his inauguration two years ago. Most of his troubles have little to do directly with the drug trafficking that is the main focus of U.S. attention. Beset by economic woes - particularly a stubborn unemployment rate that has topped 20 percent - Mr. Pastrana also has been assailed and blocked at every turn by a Congress in which he has never commanded a majority and which mistrusts his motives, dislikes many of his policies and feels he is not up to the job. Already several rivals are campaigning to replace him. Although he was elected on a peace platform with the greatest number of votes ever tallied in a national election here, fewer than 30 percent of Colombians believed Mr. Pastrana was doing a good job during most of this year, according to nationwide opinion polls. In a recent survey asking who has the most power in Colombia, 46 percent of those questioned named the leftist guerrilla leader Manuel Marulanda, and nearly a third said the United States. Mr. Pastrana was far behind with 10 percent. Few say they believe his peace negotiations with the guerrillas are going anywhere, and both violence and drug exports have continued to soar. According to a government report released last week, Colombia's murder rate leaves an average of one person dead every 20 minutes - a rate higher than that for car theft. An average of seven of Colombia's 38 million people are kidnapped each day. Many, although far from most, of these crimes are committed by participants in a war that pits leftist guerrillas against both the Colombian military and rightist paramilitary groups. The majority are attributed to common criminals who have thrived in the overall climate of lawlessness. "Colombia has lots of laws, but no law," said Carlos Lemoine, president of the National Polling Center, the country's largest polling firm. "Guerrillas, narco-traffickers and paramilitary groups provide training grounds for criminals. Now, if you commit a crime, you can hide behind them." Arrest and conviction rates are minuscule. Although the government has tried to address such problems as the more than 1 million Colombians driven from their homes by violence and the lack of a government social or law enforcement presence in many regions, little visible progress has been made. In a series of second anniversary interviews this month, Mr. Pastrana defended his leadership and achievements. "Internationally, we can now walk with our heads higher than ever before," he told the newsmagazine Cambio. "The entire world supports us and is with us in economic and social policy, and in the fight against narco-traffic and in my efforts to achieve peace, among other things. This achievement is 100 percent due to my government's policies." In terms of the peace negotiations under way with the country's two largest guerrilla groups, the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces and the National Liberation Army, Mr. Pastrana said, "We have moved forward; unfortunately it has been slow, as happens in these processes." Although most Colombians continue to support the peace process, Mr. Pastrana has gotten little in return for turning over a Switzerland-size swath of south-central Colombia to the Revolutionary Armed Forces and negotiating a smaller demilitarized zone with the National Liberation Army in the north. For many, Mr. Pastrana has turned out to be a "one-idea man," said Miguel Silva of the weekly Semana. "The truth is that his principal policy has been peace," said Javier Hendez, political editor of El Espectador, a leading Bogota newspaper. "But Colombians across the board don't see it getting any results that are reflected in their own lives. What they do see is a lot of things are worse." In addition to the violence, "there is no government infrastructure, higher taxes and worse services." "The public's view of Pastrana," Mr. Hendez said, "is worse than of Samper on his worst day." Ernesto Samper, Mr. Pastrana's predecessor, is widely credited with driving Colombia's long-solid economy into the ground, allowing drug traffickers free rein and ruining the country's international reputation. As for Mr. Clinton's visit, polls indicate the vast majority of Colombians hold him and the United States in high regard. Although Colombian labor unions and humanitarian organizations are among those who have denounced the U.S. aid package as far too heavily weighted toward military assistance and charge that it will intensify the war, many here say Colombia has run out of options. There is a fairly widespread belief that escalation from a position of military strength could finally drive the guerrillas toward a real peace and may offer the only way left to start to make things better. - --- MAP posted-by: Thunder