U.S. RESTATES ITS SUPPORT OF COLOMBIA

Rumsfeld Sees 'Progress' By The Military

BOGOTA - U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld Tuesday joined the
parade of top U.S. officials visiting Colombia to show support for
President Alvaro Uribe and the security forces' progress in their war
against drugs and guerrillas.

''We admire and respect the progress being made and the determination being
shown,'' Rumsfeld told reporters at a news conference.

Rumsfeld also announced that a U.S.-backed program to interdict airplanes
carrying drugs and weapons would resume ''within hours or a few days,'' 29
months after it was suspended following the mistaken shoot-down of an
American missionary's plane in Peru. President George W. Bush ordered it
resumed, following a safety study aimed at preventing future mishaps.

''Needless to say, aerial interdiction is not a single country's issue, it
is a regional issue,'' Rumsfeld said. ``It involves drugs as well as
weapons. It is not a problem for Colombia alone.''

Rumsfeld's visit was designed to bolster Uribe and the Colombian military
as they undergo a shift in tactics, using a combination of U.S. military
aid and advice to take the war to foes, analysts said.

Colombia is now the third largest recipient of U.S. aid, behind Israel and
Egypt. Using money from the $2.5 billion package dubbed Plan Colombia, it
has created a 2,000-man anti-narcotics brigade and now has 72 helicopters
that give the once notoriously slow military more mobility.

'GETTING FASTER'

''They are getting bigger, better and faster,'' said Gabriel Marcella,
professor at the U.S. Army War College. "They are better led, better
trained and better equipped. Is this the consequence of Plan Colombia?
Indirectly.''

Last month, the army deployed additional soldiers to 432 municipalities
that had long lived without state presence.

By September, the military has said, it expects to regain control of all
its territory, a tall order in a country of towering Andean mountains and
dense Amazon jungle.

The military indeed is still being criticized for failing to take more
aggressive steps against drug trafficking. The counter-narcotics brigade
destroyed 25 coca-processing labs in 2001 but only four in 2002, according
to a report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of the
U.S. Congress.

''I believe what we have done is create a polished barracks army,'' said
Bert Ruiz, author of The Colombian Civil War. "They can parade around and
look terrific, but look at the battlefield improvements. There aren't any.''

Ruiz particularly faults the armed forces for failing to capture a single
high profile member of the FARC, a leftist insurgency waging war here for
40 years. This year, the U.S. Congress agreed to allow the Colombian
military to use the American aid against not just drugs but the FARC as well.

Rumsfeld and other American cabinet officials have nevertheless singled out
President Uribe, sworn into office last year, for his determination to
pursue the newfound quest against the armed groups.

''All of the people from the United States involved with the Colombian
government have been deeply impressed by the conviction, passion, and
determination the president and his team demonstrated,'' Rumsfeld said
after a lunch meeting with Uribe. ``We are committed to helping, to the
extent we are able, in seeing that this war -- and it is a war -- is won.''

Bigger Army

He has increased the size of the army from 120,000 to 135,000 and the
police from 100,000 to 110,000, and demanded results from its generals.
Last week, Uribe gave generals throughout the country an ultimatum: Improve
performance or retire.

''This new offensive strategy, making people accountable, it's as far as
I'm concerned, a breakthrough,'' said a Colombian government official who
requested anonymity. "The U.S. has provided technology, resources, and
philosophy of how to win a war. It's inspiring.''

This year, the United States assigned military personnel to Colombian
military units to advise commanders and help plan attacks. Analysts agree
that the American advice has made as much a difference here as the
equipment and money.