U.S. drug czar to meet Colombia's president, review aid program

In this story: U.S. troops barred from combat Clinton to visit later RELATED STORIES, SITES

BOGOTA, Colombia -- U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey travels to Colombia on Wednesday to meet with President Andres Pastrana and review a U.S. aid program to help Colombia fight drugs and rebels.

U.S. Special Forces have begun training Colombian soldiers at a jungle base, officials said Tuesday, as the $1.3-billion initiative gets under way.

"Colombia is in a risky position," said McCaffrey, who is President Clinton's point man on the war on drugs. "They've got a peace process that's going nowhere, and a drug production problem that's skyrocketing."

MESSAGE BOARD Colombia

The 83 U.S. military personnel are working with members of a Colombian anti-narcotics battalion at Larandia military base, Colombian and U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity.

The base is in the Amazon River basin only a two-hour drive from the main stronghold of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

U.S. troops barred from combat

The U.S. troops are barred from accompanying Colombian soldiers into combat. Although FARC has declared it will fight the anti-drug offensive, it has not threatened to attack the U.S. soldiers directly.

The U.S.-trained Colombian troops -- backed by donated Black Hawk and Huey combat helicopters -- are to seize vast swaths of drug-producing areas from FARC and other armed groups, which use drug proceeds to buy weapons.

Airplanes could then destroy the crops of coca and poppy, which produce cocaine and heroin respectively, by aerial spraying without risk of being shot down.

Washington's aim is to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and shore up Colombia's democratically elected government.

"Now starts the hard part of actually doing it," McCaffrey, a former army general, told reporters in Mexico City.

Clinton to visit later

Underscoring Washington's stake in the anti-drug effort, Clinton is scheduled to visit Colombia on August 30 -- the first trip by a U.S. president to Colombia since George Bush came in 1990.

McCaffrey will be accompanied by Under Secretary of State Thomas Pickering and Gen. Charles Wilhelm, commander in chief of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Latin America.

Under the aid package passed by Congress and signed by Clinton last month, no more than 500 U.S. troops and 300 contractors can be in Colombia.

One Colombian battalion previously trained under an earlier aid package is deployed at Tres Esquinas base near the heart of Colombia's coca-growing region. The two additional battalions to be trained under the current package were expected to also operate from Tres Esquinas.

The battalion undergoing training is expected to be operational by December. The Pentagon said Tuesday the American soldiers are from units including the 7th Special Forces Group and the 720th Special Tactics Group.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Time.com: Why U.S. top brass fears getting dragged into the Colombian drug war
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Presidencia de la Republica (in Spanish & English)
Colombian Embassy in Washington
Political Resources on the Net, Colombia
Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (in Spanish)
The Colombia Report
U.S. Army Special Forces: The Green Berets
U.S. State Department
  •  U.S. Support Plan for Colombia

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