Britain’s Anti-Drug Package Being Prepared for Colombia

WASHINGTON —  Britain is preparing an anti-drug package for Colombia that will coincide with U.S. efforts to assist the Latin American country’s crackdown on drug traffickers, British Foreign Secretary John Major told President Bush on Monday.

“It’s mainly training and technical assistance. It will certainly also deal with protection of personnel,” Major told reporters as he emerged from White House meetings with Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle.

Major, 46, making his first call on the White House since taking over from Geoffrey Howe as foreign minister in July, said British officials were in Bogota in the last few days trying to determine what needs to be done to bolster President Virgilio Barco Vargas’ battle against the drug cartels.

“They’ve come up with a package of assistance that we think we can offer,” he said. “I hope we’ll be able to proceed with that very quickly.”

Major said he was unable to provide a dollar figure on the aid package because details have not yet been completed.

“At the moment, we’re trying to find out what the Colombians need so we can dovetail with the assistance that the President has announced from here,” Major said.

The United States has said it is giving Colombia $65 million in emergency aid, most of it military hardware, to help fight drug traffickers who supply 80% of the cocaine used illegally in the United States.

In addition, Colombia along with Peru and Bolivia would get $250 million under a $7.86-billion anti-drug package Bush announced last week.