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. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh