U.S. Warns Bolivia on Drug Activity

WASHINGTON (AP) The State Department said Friday "it would be very
difficult" for the United States to work with Bolivian officials who have
been involved in drug trafficking.

Department spokesman Nicholas Burns commented in response to a question about
an alliance formed between Presidentelect Hugo Banzer and former President
Jaime Paz Zamora, whose U.S. visa has been revoked because of narcotics
activity.

Burns said it would be inappropriate for the United States to comment on
which parties should be involved in coalitions in Bolivia.

But, he said, "It would be very difficult to work productively with people
who have been in the past been so centrally involved in narcotrafficking."

Burns said he was not talking about any particular individual but was instead
putting forth a "general proposition."

He added that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had a telephone
conversation in the past several days with Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez
de Lozada.

``We are watching the situation very carefully because we care about what
happens in Bolivia,'' he said.