Colombia Fights Drugs, Rebels

An explosive mix of guerrillas, guns and drug money is threatening the entire country of Colombia, region by region, reports CBS News Anchor Dan Rather.

Cali in northern Colombia is a city that drug billions built. This mountain metropolis was the heart of a drug cartel that was broken three years ago. Since then, narco-guerrillas have emerged as the new power protecting coca growers and terrorizing ordinary citizens.

Three months ago at a church in Cali, guerrillas appeared at the gates, swept in and took more than 120 people. Stunned relatives waited as the military chased the guerillas into nearby hills. Most of the hostages were eventually freed, but some 45 are still being held for ransom today.

What's happening in Cali is a microcosm of what's happening in the rest of Colombia. And that has the White House worried -- worried that a new crisis like the Balkans could erupt here, with small armies carving up the nation and spreading chaos to surrounding countries.

Several things have happened in recent weeks to put Colombia on Washington's radar screen.

First, the crash of a U.S. Army reconnaissance plane that killed five Americans on an anti-drug mission last month. Next, the arrival of the Clinton administration's drug czar Barry McCaffrey, who called for up to a billion dollars to be spent fighting what he calls narco-guerrillas.

Colombia is the world's top cocaine producer and home to the longest-running civil conflict in the Western Hemisphere.

Half the country is controlled by armed groups and heroin and cocaine output is up sharply, producing profits that drug traffickers share with leftist guerrillas, McCaffrey said.

The highest-level talks in Bogota in a decade are being held this week between U.S. and Colombian officials. That reflects some confidence in the new Colombian government, but also alarm over the fact that 40 percent of the country is already in rebel hands.

That's one reason McCaffrey is now saying there's a crisis in Colombia and one that could spread to surrounding countries like Equador, Peru, Brazil, and perhaps even Venezuela and Panama.

Colombia's mounting social chaos has become a regional problem requiring the "political involvement'' of other nations, he says.

McCaffrey said allies could help wean Colombia from drug profits and improve the country's institutions, including its criminal justice system, but military assistance would be limited.

"We can support them with resources, training, equipment, intelligence. ... We're clearly trying to support them with drug-related intelligence,'' McCaffrey said.

The United States spends $289 million annually to fight drugs in Colombia, but McCaffrey has proposed raising U.S. aid to $1 billion next year.