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WASHINGTON POST

Friday, 26 June 1998

                Aircraft Compromise Lifts Freeze On
                  Anti-Drug Aid to Latin America
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        By Douglas Farah


Congressional Republicans and the State Department have agreed to provide
six upgraded helicopters to Colombian police to fight drug traffickers,
ending an impasse of several months that strained relations between
Congress and the Clinton administration and held up $36 million in
anti-drug aid to Latin America.

The agreement calls for the State Department to provide three Bell 212
helicopters in fiscal 1998 and three more in fiscal 1999. The State
Department also agreed to consider sending four Navy surplus TC-4C
Gulfstream surveillance aircraft. In exchange, the Republican freeze on
the anti-drug funds has been lifted.

The controversy came to a head two months ago, when most of the 36 
Vietnam-
era Huey UH-1H helicopters given to Colombia were grounded because of
mechanical problems related to their age. As a result, most interdiction
efforts in Colombia have come to a halt.

Republicans, led by New York Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, demanded the
administration replace part of the fleet with three Black Hawk helicopters,
which can carry more troops, fly at higher altitudes and are better armed.

When the State Department refused to fund the Black Hawks, arguing they
were too expensive to buy and operate, Gilman placed a hold on $23 million
in State Department anti-drug money for Bolivia and $13 million in similar
aid to Colombia. The Bell 212 helicopters are newer and can fly higher
than the Huey UH-1Hs, but are not as sophisticated and expensive as the
Black Hawks.

In an interview Wednesday afternoon, Gilman said the compromise to 
supply
with Bell 212s was enough to get him to lift the hold on the money.

"We are getting a Ford instead of a Cadillac, but it is a start," Gilman
said.

In a June 19 letter to Gilman, Barbara Larkin, assistant secretary of
legislative affairs at the State Department, said 10 of the old Hueys
would also be upgraded to "Super Hueys," capable of flying higher.

Helicopters are vital in combating drug trafficking because most of the
coca and poppy fields, which produce the raw materials for cocaine and
heroin, are in isolated, inaccessible jungle areas or high mountain
slopes. Drug laboratories that can be reached in minutes by air could take
days to reach on foot.