Latin American defense ministers fear escalation of the drug war.

 BY KEVIN G. HALL
 Herald World Staff

 MANAUS, Brazil -- U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen promised Latin
 American defense ministers Tuesday that Colombia's expanding drug war will not
 become a Vietnam-like quagmire.

 But in interviews, defense leaders from countries bordering Colombia said they
 fear they will suffer escalating cross-border movements of Colombian drug
 traffickers and the guerrillas that thrive on protecting them.

 Addressing 30 Western Hemisphere defense ministers, Cohen stressed that Plan
 Colombia, an international anti-drug effort that includes $1.3 billion in U.S. military
 aid, is essentially a training and equipping mission. It is not, he insisted, the first
 stage of a U.S. military intervention.

 ``Anything you read or hear to the contrary is false and fabricated. We want to be
 of assistance. We will work with Colombia. We hope others can help in their own
 individual ways,'' Cohen said.

 The Clinton administration insists Colombian units can break up drug operations
 without U.S. troops getting involved in an escalating civil war against rebels
 protecting Colombia's narcotics.

 But its neighbors say Colombian rebels are already trying to draw them into a
 widened conflict to weaken regional support for Plan Colombia.

 The kidnapping last week in eastern Ecuador of a group of oil workers, including
 five Americans, is part of that campaign, Ecuadorean military officers said. They
 said intercepted radio communications indicate that the kidnappers are rebels
 from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

 ``I don't have information as to who is responsible. . . . That will not alter Plan
 Colombia,'' Cohen said at a news conference. ``Plan Colombia is designed to deal
 with narco-trafficking and other elements that are trying to basically take
 democracy away from the people of Colombia.''

 Venezuelan forces reportedly crossed into Colombia over the weekend in pursuit
 of suspected drug traffickers.

 ``Worries remain in the countries that are neighbors of Colombia,'' said
 Venezuelan Defense Minister Gen. Ismael Eliezer Hurtado.

 A group of Colombian insurgents stormed across the northwest border into
 Panama's Darién region on Saturday, killing an 11-year-old girl and wounding nine
 civilians and three border policemen, according to Panamanian officials.

 ``This makes us think that in some form, they want to push Panama, into the
 [conflict] that Colombia is experiencing now,'' said Pablo Quintero Luna, chief of
 Panama's national security board.

 Colombian Defense Minister Luis Ramírez Acuña countered that Colombia's
 neighbors need to better protect their borders.

 ``What is needed is that we act together, the neighboring countries, to strengthen
 our borders so that Panama has more military presence at its border, so that
 Ecuador also has it and Venezuela,'' he said, noting that drug traffickers will
 continue operating where they meet the least resistance.