Pubdate: Tue, 17 Apr 2001
Source: Reuters
Copyright: 2001 Reuters Limited
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/364

NEIGHBORS DRAFT COUNTER-PROPOSAL TO PLAN COLOMBIA

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Colombia and six of its neighbors will hold 
talks with President Bush (news - web sites) Friday to discuss a 
counter-proposal to Bogota's U.S.- backed drug offensive, Venezuelan 
Foreign Minister Luis Davila said Monday.

Davila said Bush would meet the leaders of the Andean Community -- 
Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia -- and the presidents of 
Brazil and Panama to discuss the regional impact of the $7.5 billion Plan 
Colombia.

He said the meeting would take place in Quebec, where 34 Western Hemisphere 
countries are holding a Summit of the Americas at the weekend.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been the most strident regional 
opponent of the military component of the plan, which he has predicted 
would drive Colombian narco-traffickers and leftist guerrillas across the 
border into neighboring nations.

``The counter-proposal which we are trying to finalize at the moment is not 
an answer to Plan Colombia, it is a proposal which unites the desire of all 
the countries to escape from this problem,'' Davila said.

The clampdown on drugs production, backed by around $1 billion in mainly 
military U.S. aid, has complicated Colombia's 37-year-old conflict between 
the government and left-wing rebels and driven hundreds of refugees across 
her frontiers.

The seven Latin American nations were seeking to increase the social, 
economic and cultural elements of the U.S.-backed fight against drugs in 
the region, Davila said.

A key concern was the need for the U.S. government to provide Colombian 
peasants with real incentives to replace drugs with other crops.

Davila also suggested the United States ``should give preferential 
(economic) treatment'' to nations involved in the war on drugs.

Chavez will travel to Colombia ahead of the Quebec summit to join a meeting 
of the Andean nations of the U.S. Andean Trade Preferences Act (ATPA).

Venezuela is seeking admission to this pact, which provides U.S. trade 
benefits for countries deemed to be cooperating with the war on drugs.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D