DATE=8/30/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CLINTON-COLOMBIA (L)
NUMBER=2-265990
BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST
DATELINE=CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO:  President Clinton is in Colombia for a one-day 
visit to stress U-S support for the government of 
Colombian President Andres Pastrana and its struggle 
against drug traffickers.  There is extraordinary 
security in place for the visit, the first by a U-S 
President to Colombia in a decade.  Correspondent 
David Gollust reports from the Caribbean port city of 
Cartagena.

TEXT:  The Clinton visit is brief, but crowded with 
events underscoring the U-S commitment to the Pastrana 
government and its efforts to restore the rule of law 
in a country torn by drug violence and a chronic 
leftwing insurgency.

After an airport welcome from the Colombian President, 
the two leaders - both in shirtsleeves -- left by 
motorcade for a briefing on drug-interdiction efforts 
at the Cartagena port complex.  They also toured a U-S 
funded center where legal services are being extended 
to the city's poor.

With Republican Party support, Mr. Clinton last month 
pushed through Congress a one-point-three billion 
dollar Colombia aid package that includes training and 
helicopters for anti-drug units of the Colombian 
security forces.

The plan has been criticized as intervention that 
could inflame Colombia's three-decade civil conflict.  
But Mr. Clinton said Tuesday in a broadcast message to 
Colombians the United States supports peace efforts by 
Mr. Pastrana and does not believe the insurgency can 
be resolved by force of arms:

            /// CLINTON ACT ///

      Please do not misunderstand our purpose.  We 
      have no military objective.  We do not believe 
      your conflict has a military solution.  We 
      support the peace process. Our approach is both 
      pro-peace, and anti-drug.

            /// END ACT ///

Last week, Mr. Clinton waived human-rights conditions 
attached to the aid package to speed its delivery to 
Colombia - prompting complaints from human-rights 
groups and some members of Congress. 

But administration officials insist Mr. Pastrana is 
committed to dealing with human-rights violations by 
Colombian security forces and paramilitary groups 
allied with them.

The choice of Cartagena for the Clinton visit was 
driven by security concerns.  It is more than 600-
kilometers from the capital, Bogota, which is plagued 
by criminal violence, and is even farther from the 
southern part of the country where drug gangs and 
rebels have a nearly free reign.

None-the-less thousands of Colombian police and 
soldiers - and hundreds of U-S security agents - have 
been deployed here for the President's visit.  It is 
the first visit by a U-S President since George Bush 
visited the scenic port in 1990.

In a show of bipartisan solidarity, Mr. Clinton was 
accompanied here by a big congressional delegation led 
by the Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.   
(SIGNED)

NEB/DAG/RAE 



30-Aug-2000 12:49 PM EDT (30-Aug-2000 1649 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.