DALLAS MORNING NEWS

Tuesday, 4 August 1998


                President-elect of Colombia visits Clinton
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        By Jim Landers


WASHINGTON - Saying "the era of mistrust is over," Colombia's
President-elect Andres Pastrana met President Clinton on Monday to discuss
U.S. aid for Colombia's wars with guerrillas and drug traffickers.

Mr. Pastrana was elected president in June, and his inauguration will be
Friday in Bogota.

The Clinton administration rewarded his independence from Colombian 
drug traffickers by scheduling Monday's meetings with Mr. Clinton, Secretary 
of State Madeleine Albright and White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey.

Mr. Clinton promised to work with Congress to increase U.S. help in
fighting Colombia's drug war and protecting human rights.

Mr. Pastrana offered an upbeat assessment of the talks.

"The challenges we face are great ones," he said. "But I am 100 percent
sure that in the new atmosphere of cooperation and mutual respect evident
here today, we will be able to achieve together most of what must be
done."

Switching to Spanish, Mr. Pastrana told reporters he wanted to invite Mr.
Clinton to an anti-drug summit in Colombia to discuss a "Marshall Plan"
for moving coca-growing farmers into other crops.

White House officials said Mr. Pastrana did invite Mr. Clinton to
Colombia. Mr. Clinton, rather than responding, invited Mr. Pastrana to
return to Washington in the fall. Mr. Pastrana accepted the invitation.

Mr. Pastrana took his Marshall Plan idea to the Inter-American Development
Bank earlier Monday, where he discussed a $100 million crop-substitution
loan.

Mr. Pastrana made clear, however, that his top priority is trying to end
the war with guerrillas and drug traffickers.

In recent months, guerrillas -financed by kidnappings and deals with drug
traffickers- have won control over as much as half of rural Colombia.
Rightist paramilitary groups, sometimes also in league with the drug
traffickers, operate unchecked in large areas of the country, analysts
said.

U.S. military assistance to Colombia has grown to $100 million, and more
than 200 U.S. military advisers are in Colombia working with the army.

U.S. efforts to help Colombia have been constrained by evidence that
President Ernesto Samper won the 1994 election against Mr. Pastrana with
$6 million in campaign funds from the Cali cocaine cartel.

Mr. Pastrana's meeting with Mr. Clinton "clearly signals that we are
looking forward to expanding the cooperation," said White House 
spokesman P.J. Crowley.

        Copyright 1998 The Dallas Morning News