DATE=8/4/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CLINTON-COLOMBIA (L)
NUMBER=2-265157
BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST
DATELINE=WHITE HOUSE
CONTENT=


INTRO:  President Clinton will make a brief visit to 
Colombia August 30th to underscore U-S support for  
Colombian President Andres Pastrana's efforts to fight 
drug trafficking and end a long-running conflict with 
left-wing insurgents. VOA's David Gollust reports from 
the White House.



TEXT:  Mr. Clinton will spend only six or eight hours 
in Colombia. But he will take a bipartisan 
Congressional team with him including Republican House 
Speaker Dennis Hastert in a high-profile show of 
support for President Pastrana.

Announcement of the trip was coupled with the issuance 
of a presidential directive aimed at speeding delivery  
of the one-point-three billion dollars in new U-S aid 
to Colombia approved by Congress last month.

The aid package includes 60 U-S helicopters and 
training for special anti-drug units of the Colombian 
security forces by as many as 500 U-S military 
advisers.

The aid plan was opposed in Congress by many members 
who fear it will drag the United States into a 
Vietnam-style involvement in Colombia's civil war.

Officials who briefed reporters here on the Clinton 
directive insisted the U-S aid is aimed at fighting 
drugs and not Colombian insurgents.

But they said elements of the leftwing FARC guerrilla 
movement are involved in the drug trade, and as one 
put it "there could very well be" clashes between U-S-
supported units and the guerrillas.

The U-S aid money would also support the chemical 
eradication of drug crops, alternative farm programs, 
efforts to strengthen the Colombian legal system and 
respect for human rights, and programs to the 
country's troubled economy.

The White House document says 90 per cent of the 
cocaine that reaches the illicit U-S drug market 
originates in or passes through Colombia.

It says drug abuse costs U-S society 52-thousand lives 
and 110-billion dollars a year, while in Colombia 
pervasive violence has killed 35-thousand people in 
the last 15 years and displaced one-point-four million 
people - the fourth largest such refugee crisis in the 
world.

Administration officials say that while the 
President's itinerary had not been finalized, he will 
likely fly to the Caribbean port city of Cartagena - 
far from the drug battle zone of southern Colombia - 
for a meeting with President Pastrana and other 
events.

It will be the first U-S Presidential visit to 
Colombia since 1990, when former President George Bush 
also made a one-day visit to highlight counter-drug 
efforts. (Signed)

NEB/DAG/PT





04-Aug-2000 16:37 PM EDT (04-Aug-2000 2037 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.