U.S. DECISION TO CUT MILITARY AID TO CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES COULD HANDICAP WAR
ON DRUGS, CRITICS SAY

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The cargo ship looked like any other cutting its
ways across the Caribbean, but stashed in hidden compartments was nearly 4
tons of cocaine.

The bust by U.S. and British officials this summer _ one of the largest
this year _ illustrated the vast amounts of drugs still crossing the
Caribbean and destined for the United States and Europe.

"For every vessel we seize, there might be 20 vessels that get in," said
Lt. Luis Rodriguez, of the U.S. Coast Guard in Puerto Rico.

Observers say even more traffickers could slip through following a recent
U.S. decision to suspend military aid to six Caribbean countries - aid used
mainly to help the United States fight the war on drugs.

"It's going to hurt the U.S. in the longer term," said Crispin Gregoire,
Dominica's ambassador to the United Nations. "The question that looms large
is: Is the U.S. still committed to the war on drugs?"

The suspension comes as the U.S. Coast Guard acquired new duties following
the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, further drawing their attention
from drug smugglers.

The United States last month suspended military aid to 35 countries
worldwide because they refused to exempt Americans from the new
International Criminal Court to fight crimes against humanity.

Dominica was the first Caribbean country to approve the treaty establishing
the court, and Gregoire said the suspension of military aid smacks of
"power politics."

A total of US$3.1 million was suspended this year to Dominica, Antigua and
Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and
Belize.

U.S. officials say the bulk would have gone toward counter-drug operations.

Much of the aid was established after the United States strong-armed
Caribbean countries into signing agreements in 1996 and 1997 that allow
U.S. officials to pursue suspected drug traffickers into their sovereign
waters and airspace. It is part of a U.S. strategy to fight the drug war in
its backyard, the Caribbean, rather than on its doorstep off the Florida coast.

While the aid cuts will weaken enforcement by friendly Caribbean nations,
U.S. Coast Guard officials are being diverted by new duties such as
escorting "high-interest vessels" like cruise ships in and out of U.S. ports.

"We're concentrating on the port security mission now more than the drug
seizures," said Rodriguez, deputy chief of law enforcement in the Coast
Guard's Puerto Rico office.

"Before we were definitely looking at the drugs all the time," he said.
Now, "we have to divvy up our time to more missions, so there's going to be
less time devoted to the war on drugs."

He said the amount of drugs seized in the Caribbean _ though initially down
after the Sept. 11 attacks _ hasn't shown any decrease due to a number of
large seizures.

A U.N. report published this year said due to the new emphasis on U.S.
border security, fewer traffickers are using small planes to drop off drugs
and more are returning to the use of go-fast boats to slip around U.S.
defenses.

"They're practically invisible. They can dash in and out and make it back
in the same day," said Flavio Mirella, outgoing representative of the
Caribbean regional office of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. "We're
looking at a situation where it's very attractive to go through the Caribbean."