U.S. worries go beyond the burgeoning flow of drugs to the faltering of the region's oldest democracy, the spillover of its conflict into neighboring countries, the kidnapping of U.S. citizens, and the swelling numbers of Colombians fleeing to the United States. While the administration is prepared to back a substantial aid hike, direct U.S. military involvement is not on the table. These are times of cooperation. Invasion talk has been fueled by the growing U.S. and Colombian military role in the drug war. Colombia's police have been unable to penetrate the guerrilla-dominated regions where most of the world's coca and a new crop of heroin poppies are grown.
Rebels guard coca fields and drug labs and shoot down government helicopters and fumigation planes.
So in the past year U.S. marines, Navy SEALs, and Green Berets have begun teaching Colombian military units infantry tactics, assault and infiltration techniques, reconnaissance, and mortar handling. There's no music where they're headed, however. The newly trained antidrug troops will be deployed in December to Putumayo, the epicenter of new coca cultivation. As the Riverine Brigade has discovered, the line between fighting drugs and rebels here is murky. FARC rebels are so involved in the drug business that the commander of the main Navy base, Capt.