Latin countries wary of U.S. role

By Jonathan Wright

WASHINGTON (Reuters): As Washington shifts from planning to action behind the embattled Colombian government, other Latin American countries watch from the sidelines, some with trepidation, others with cautious enthusiasm.

Under a U.S. aid package worth US$1.3 billion, U.S. military advisers will go to Colombia to train special battalions in fighting the drugs trade and, indirectly, the leftist guerrillas who protect and profit from the trafficking.

The United States moved the package one step forward on Tuesday when President Bill Clinton waived most of the human rights conditions imposed by Congress, in advance of his landmark visit to Colombia on Aug. 30.

The money will strengthen the Colombian armed forces, possibly emboldening the government to seek a military solution to what many South Americans see as a political problem rooted in chronic poverty and social injustice.

U.S. intervention in the region hits a raw nerve in many Latin American countries, with bad memories of heavy-handed U.S. policies to protect American businesses, especially during the Cold War against the Soviet Union.

Colombia's neighbors, to varying degrees, say they recognize the gravity of the crisis in Colombia, where the government controls hardly half the country and where cocaine and heroin give the rebels a steady $500 million a year.

But they worry that the conflict will spill over onto their territory, either in the form of refugees, cocaine production, guerrillas or drug traffickers seeking shelter from the military offensive that everyone expects.

Another concern is that President Andres Pastrana's Plan Colombia puts too much emphasis on military action, to the detriment of peace talks with the rebels.

Brazil, the largest country in South America and one of Colombia's five immediate neighbors, said last week that it was worried about the effects that Plan Colombia might have along the common border between the countries.

Foreign Minister Luiz Felipe Lampreia said Brazil was not as committed as the United States to Pastrana's plan and would not take part in any common international action in Colombia.

Venezuela has already distanced itself from the U.S. strategy for Colombia by refusing to let U.S. reconnaissance planes fly over its territory to track the small planes that fly Colombian drugs north toward the United States.

Venezuela has already suffered a spate of kidnappings and plane hijackings in the border area. The bodies of three Americans killed by guerrillas were dumped there last year.

"With American aid, there is a possibility of people taking refuge in Venezuela, and all the kinds of problems that the presence of guerrillas implies," said one Venezuelan official.

Venezuela believes that dialogue between the Colombian government and the two main rebel groups is the best way to end the rebellion, which has lasted more than 30 years.

"We believe that peace has to be achieved through negotiations more than anything else... With American aid, there might be some people in the Colombian army who no longer want negotiations," the official added.

Venezuela also worries that U.S. aid to the Colombian army might tip the regional balance of power against the Venezuelan army, a South American diplomat said.

Colombia's two Andean neighbors, Peru and Ecuador, both of which receive some extra U.S. aid as part of the Colombia package, have tended to be more enthusiastic about U.S. intervention and Plan Colombia.

But Ecuador is preparing its own program to strengthen the government presence in the northern border regions.

"We don't want the removal, which is necessary, of that cancerous tumor (the drug trade) in Colombia to cause metastasis (the spread of the disease) in Ecuador," Foreign Minister Heinz Moeller said last week.

Moeller was speaking at a joint news conference with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who was touring South America, in part to muster support for Plan Colombia.

Peru, once a major producer of cocaine, is also broadly supportive. "Generally speaking, we approve of Plan Colombia," said a Peruvian spokesman in Washington.

Panama, which borders Colombia to the north but is relatively insulated by thick jungle, says it does not foresee any adverse side-effects from U.S. intervention.

"My personal opinion is that something must be done about Colombia. It's a regional problem and ... the plan is a step forward. We hope it will succeed," Panama's ambassador to the United States, Guillermo Ford, told Reuters.

But he added: "Everyone would be sensitive about U.S. military intervention. Right now the information we have is that they are there as advisers. Nobody would like to see a big flare-up in South America."

An escalation is exactly what Colombians on both sides of the conflict expect.

"There will be peace, but first there will be war," Colombia's armed forces chief, Gen. Fernando Tapias, said in an interview published in Brazil on Sunday.

"If they implement Plan Colombia in practice they will have the worst conflict that this country has ever seen. And we will be ready for it," Raul Reyes, the chief negotiator for the country's biggest rebel army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia said in a separate interview.