Colombia Victor Seeks U.S. Aid

BOGOTA, Colombia —  On his first day as Colombia’s new president-elect, Alvaro Uribe issued an urgent call Monday for help from the United States, saying more money, more support and more understanding are needed to end this nation’s devastating guerrilla war.

The hard-hitting former mayor, whose father was killed by the rebels, wasted no time in asking the U.S. to provide more technical support and more helicopters to help fight the leftist guerrillas who have battled the government for more than 40 years.

But in a surprise move, Uribe also proposed future peace negotiations to include Colombia’s violent right-wing paramilitaries--the first time a Colombian leader has made such a suggestion in public.

“The violence we are suffering is terrorism,” Uribe told a group of international journalists at a news conference. “We need the help of the United States in order to preserve our democracy.”

Uribe, who will not take office until August, faces a daunting array of challenges as the next president of one of Latin America’s largest and most populous and violence-ridden countries.

The guerrilla war, which has gradually intensified over the last 10 years, is killing this country’s people, straining its resources and frightening away foreign investment. Peace talks collapsed in February, leading to a further escalation.

The economy is stagnant, with external debt accounting for nearly half the nation’s $85.3-billion gross domestic product. The guerrilla war has also begun taking a greater toll. It severely damaged oil revenue last year through attacks on L.A.-based Occidental Petroleum’s oil facilities.

Unemployment is high, and poverty blights the lives of more than half the population of 42 million.

Uribe is counting on international support, along with his mandate, to achieve an ambitious set of military, economic and governmental reforms. He won 53% of the vote Sunday, marking the first time since Colombia’s latest constitution was adopted in 1991 that any presidential candidate has won a majority and avoided a runoff.

A technocrat with a passion for policy, Uribe said he would begin immediately building his Cabinet to face the challenges ahead.

From the U.S., Uribe is seeking a laundry list: increased support from Plan Colombia, which is designed to cut the production of drugs in half by 2005; continuation of a trade pact that eliminates tariffs on textiles and other products from Andean countries; and help in obtaining better terms from global financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund.

In Washington, U.S. officials have already begun work on many of the proposals. The House has approved continuation of the trade agreement. And the Bush administration has suggested lifting restrictions as part of its $657-million aid proposal this year and permitting some of that money to be used directly for military purposes. For instance, $98 million would go to train a brigade to protect an oil pipeline.

U.S. officials have already expressed support for many of Uribe’s plans. U.S. Ambassador Anne W. Patterson went to Uribe’s campaign headquarters Sunday night to congratulate him even before his victory speech.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Susan Pittman told reporters that the United States is looking forward to working with Uribe “to advance our shared goals of eliminating the scourges of narcotics trafficking and terrorism, improving human rights conditions and ensuring a prosperous future for all Colombia.”

Horacio Serpa, Uribe’s closest rival and the second-place finisher in Sunday’s race, had expressed reservations about U.S. drug strategy in the region.

But Uribe has long backed Plan Colombia. On Monday, he urged resumption of interdiction flights to stop drug planes and asked for increased efforts by Mexico and the U.S. to seal their borders to drug trafficking.

He also noted the connection between the drug trade and Colombia’s internal conflict, where both guerrillas and paramilitary groups fund their efforts with drug profits. Colombia supplies 90% of the cocaine used in the U.S. and most of the heroin available in the East.

Fighting drugs “is essential. Colombia has to defeat drugs. If not, we cannot create the condition to negotiate our conflicts. While this country’s violent groups continue with this source of financing, every day we move farther and farther from final accords,” Uribe said.

He also issued a call for the United Nations to attempt to restart peace talks with the rebels. Since talks collapsed, Colombia’s war has slowly escalated.

“If we do not resolve it, this conflict has the potential danger to destabilize Latin America,” Uribe said.

He also said he would negotiate with Colombia’s 10,000-strong paramilitary forces. While top U.S. officials have indicated that such talks are inevitable, outgoing President Andres Pastrana has avoided publicly endorsing them.

In part, this hesitancy has stemmed from a desire to avoid angering the rebels, who have insisted that they would not conduct talks with paramilitary forces, their sworn enemy. And in part, it reflects the paramilitaries’ current status as outlaws without a coherent political agenda.

But Uribe’s overtures are less than they seem. Before there can be any talks, he has demanded that both the rebels and the paramilitaries agree to a cessation of hostilities and an end to violence.

“Why are those the requirements? Not for my caprice, or for vanity or arrogance. Because what the Colombian people need is relief,” Uribe said.

Neither side has expressed any willingness to lay down its arms before beginning talks, and it is unclear whether any international body could change that stance.

But on Monday, paramilitary commander Salvatore Mancuso issued a communique congratulating Uribe on his victory.

Despite the obstacles, Colombian peace leaders welcomed Uribe’s words.

Ana Teresa Bernal, head of Redepaz, one of the country’s leading peace groups, said she was unsure where negotiations with paramilitary groups would lead but that any attempt would be worth the effort.

“We are hoping that he will leave the door open to discussion for peace,” Bernal said. “At the very least, they could arrive at a humanitarian accord to avoid attacking civilians.”

Uribe was also questioned about his own security.

By his count, he has already been the target of 15 assassination attempts, including one in April that left four people dead and wrecked the car in which he was traveling.

But on Monday, Uribe said he would work to improve the security of all Colombians--himself included.

“God will provide,” he said.