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Washington, DC -- Colombian Defense Minister Rodrigo Lloreda told a leading US daily that he was surprised when the US Congress approved 289 million dollars in drug-fighting money for his country. "It was a decision that surprised everybody," Lloreda said in an interview published Tuesday in The New York Times. The US funds for Colombia, included in the 500 billion dollar budget for fiscal 1999 passed by Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton on October 21, represent a tenfold increase in anti-drug funding since 1993. Lloreda said the United States had previously supported Colombia's drug-fighting efforts, "but they kept a certain balance between Colombia, Peru and other countries." The 289 million dollars for Colombia, part of a 690 million dollar anti-drug package for Latin America, is mostly earmarked for weapons, helicopters and surveillance planes, the daily said. Some critics fear the Clinton administration will find it difficult to restrict the aid to attacking the drug trade at its source and will be lured into supporting Colombia's protracted struggle against leftist guerrillas. "It's another step in the wrong direction," said Adam Isaacson , of the Center for International Policy, a Washington-based research institute. "I would call it a danger. There is an overlap to worry about." Administration officials argued that the aid would strengthen Colombian President Andres Pastrana's position as he embarks on peace negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the country's largest and oldest guerrilla group. "You can't negotiate unless you have strength," Lloreda told the daily. "We would all like peace to come spontaneously out of good will, but it doesn't always work that way." Copyright 1998 Agence France Presse In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 and The Berne Convention on Literary and Artistic Works, Article 10, news clippings are made available without profit for research and educational purposes. |
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