The New York Times - Nov. 25, 1996

AMERICAN DRUG AID GOES SOUTH

American programs to fight cocaine in Latin America have long depended on an un holy alliance.

the United States has sent hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons and equipment to armies with atrocious human rights records and greater desire to fight guerrillas than drugs. Achieving American goals in the region - combatting cocaine and promoting democracy and human rights - depends on preventing the aid from going to thugs of being used in counterinsurgency wars. Recent developments show that the United States needs to do more to insure that its assistance is not misused.

For years, human rights groups and legislators, notably Senator Patrick Leahy, have alleged that Colombian military units receiving American antidrug weapons and equipment were using the aid to strafe villages and assassinate leftist politicians. In 1993 the General Accounting Office concluded that aid had indeed gone to abusive units.

The State Department repeatedly denied the reports. But Amnesty International recently released documents leaked from American military officers stationed in Colombia. They showed that in 1994 American officers confirmed that drug aid was being used to fight guerrillas, and was going to units ranked among the worst human rights abusers. State Department officials now depended on assurances from Colombian military.

The Colombian abuses continue. Yet Washing on is preparing to send 30 million USD in helicopters, boats and other equipment to the Colombian police and to security forces in other countries.

Colombia is not the only abuser. The G.A.O reported that Mexico has used American counternarcotics helicopters to transport troops to Chiapas to fight guerrillas.

A new law, sponsored by Senator Leahy, bars aid to military units whose members are credibly accused of committing serious human rights violations, unless the recipient government is prosecuting the violators. The administration, which admits that difficulties in monitoring remain, says it is negotiating conditions fro new aid that will assure compliance with Leahy law. It must stick with these conditions and enforce them with vigor.

Gen. Barry MCCaffrey, the nation's drug czar, has a good record on human rights issues. But not a recent visit to Peru he seemed to give his endorsement to Vladimiro Montesinos, the de facto head of Peruvian intelligence. Mr. Montesinos used to work as a lawyer for drug traffickers. American and Peruvian human rights groups accuse him of setting up death squads, and the Peruvian Congress has tried to investigate charges that he protected drug traffickers.

General MCCAffrey lectured Mr. Montesinos in private, but praised the effectiveness of the intelligence unit at a meeting attended by the Peruvian. Asked by a reporter about Mr. Montesinos, General McCaffrey said he had confidence that all the government's advisers were honest.

General McCaffrey's comments were frontpage news in Peru, where they were taken as support for the popular theory that Mr. Montesinos enjoys Washington's protection. This perception has boosted his power and helped him to block the Congressional investigations. General McCaffrey lost an important opportunity to distance the American Government from Mr. Montesinos.

Recently Washington has acknowledged the poisonous effects of its intelligence relationships with abusive officers in Latin America. IT must keep its counternarcotics programs from making the same mistakes.