Pubdate: Fri, 07 Mar 2003
Source: Oklahoman, The (OK)
Copyright: 2003 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.oklahoman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/318
Author: Kevin G. Hall, Knight Ridder News Service

COLOMBIA SEEKS BRAZIL'S AID

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- The presidents of Colombia and Brazil will meet
today under heavy U.S. pressure to isolate the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, the region's cocaine-financed guerrilla movement that is labeled a
terrorist organization by the Bush administration. Colombian President
Alvaro Uribe wants Brazil's support for Plan Colombia, a joint
U.S.-Colombian military effort to quash cocaine trafficking and the
guerrilla groups funded by cocaine.

For Brazil, Latin America's largest and most influential nation, that would
mean an end to years of neutrality and an unpopular yielding to Washington's
will.

Brazilians are worried about cocaine trafficking in their country, however,
and a leader of the rebels is alleged to have protected Brazil's top
trafficker until the trafficker was captured in April 2001. Uncomfortable
with a growing U.S. presence next door in Colombia, Brazil thus far has
balked at branding the rebels a terrorist organization.

"It is not convenient for Brazil to classify the (rebels) as terrorist or
not," said a Brazilian diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity. "Brazil
keeps no such list of terrorist groups, so it is not necessary to add them
to a list. This could make more difficult future efforts by Brazil to
mediate the conflict in Colombia."

Brazil's new president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is already trying to
broker an end to Venezuela's political turmoil, leading a Group of Friends
trying to stave off a civil war. A longtime leftist, da Silva and his
closest foreign policy aides feel the previous Brazilian government should
have worked to discourage the U.S. military buildup under Plan Colombia.

The United States has spent more than $2 billion since 2001 in military aid
to curb cocaine flowing from Colombia, the largest producer of cocaine and
grower of coca, the plant from which the narcotic is made. U.S. military
advisors are training the Colombian military to protect an oil pipeline
owned by Occidental Petroleum Corp. and Ecopetrol.

Uribe, under constant U.S. surveillance because of recent assassination
attempts, took office last year promising to wage war on rebels.
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