The Washington Post

Wednesday, February 16, 2000

Colombia Anti-Drug Plan Draws Hill Fire

By Karen DeYoung

Members of Congress opened fire on the Clinton administration's $1.6 billion anti-drug plan for Colombia yesterday, with wide-ranging concerns that it is too little, too much, too late, too ambitious and not ambitious enough.

In a taste of what the administration can expect as it seeks quick approval of the two-year package, including an emergency supplemental appropriation this year of nearly $1 billion, senior defense and diplomatic officials were sharply questioned on past failures and potential pitfalls.

Testifying before a House Government Reform subcommittee on drug policy were many of the administration's front-line troops on Colombia, including White House drug policy director Barry R. McCaffrey; Gen. Charles Wilhelm, head of the U.S. Southern Command; Peter Romero, the assistant secretary of state for Latin America; William Ledwith, director of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Agency; and Ana Maria Salazar, deputy assistant secretary of defense for drug policy.

Subcommittee members asked pointed questions that reflected years of involvement in the issues of drug trafficking and Colombia policy, with specific concerns about human rights, leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries, coca crop yields, the relative merits of various types of military helicopters, and problems with lengthy delays in delivering military equipment as well as procuring any equipment at all after years of shrinking defense budgets.

Most of the testimony in the day-long hearing went over well-plowed ground in the ongoing Colombia debate, which has been the subject of numerous hearings and investigations in recent years.

Noting that "surplus material" promised the Colombian military "back to 1997 hasn't been delivered," subcommittee Chairman Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.) asked McCaffrey how the administration could guarantee new equipment and training would arrive as promised.

Acknowledging an "enormously legitimate concern," that "we'll screw this up seriously if we don't put together a mechanism that's adequate to the challenge," McCaffrey said the administration hoped to put together a permanent secretariat to manage the aid process.

In response to questions, Wilhelm acknowledged the U.S. military presence in Colombia "will change in subtle ways" with the new package, the majority of which consists of military equipment and training. But he and Salazar insisted that the force level was unlikely to rise above the 80 to 250 U.S. military personnel now on the ground, and that close monitoring would prevent U.S. involvement in Colombia's long-running counterinsurgency.

Wilhelm said he hoped to replace the U.S. Army colonel heading the American military group in Colombia with a general. He acknowledged that U.S. ability to monitor drug flights in and out of Colombia and the surrounding region with airborne surveillance had been severely undercut by the U.S. withdrawal from Howard Air Force Base last year under final implementation of the Panama Canal Treaties. The United States has reached agreement with Ecuador to use base facilities there, Romero said, and is negotiating with the Netherlands Antilles government for additional assets.