Latin Nations Sign Pact to Fight Terror

www.kansascity.com Posted on Wed, Mar. 12, 2003 SUSANNAH A. NESMITH Associated Press

BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombia and several neighboring nations signed an accord to Wednesday to work together to fight terrorism and drug trafficking.

But the agreement did not specify how the nations would cooperate especially in Colombia, the world's principal producer of cocaine and site of violent insurgencies.

Colombia is fighting a 38-year war against several rebel and paramilitary groups, most of them financed through drug trafficking.

Colombian officials, who have complained that the rebels and their paramilitary rivals have found refuge in neighboring countries, and are hoping that now neighboring borders will be closed to them.

A senior U.S. official said the agreement - signed by Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil and Panama - represented a turning point in regional relations.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Colombia's neighbors have in the past refused to help fight the leftist rebels, right-wing militias and drug rings.

"Now they've recognized it as a transnational problem," the official said.