WASHINGTON — Colombia's President-elect Cesar Gaviria said Friday that the United States must curb its appetite for drugs before his nation can significantly stem illegal cocaine production.
Gaviria told reporters after meeting with President Bush that "the demand for drugs is the engine of the trafficking problem. If the United States and the industrial countries don't get a way to reduce consumption, we will not solve the problem.
"It doesn't matter how much we work against the trafficking of drugs, how many lives we lose. It doesn't matter how great our effort, the problem will be there. The United States and industrialized countries need a way to reduce the consumption of drugs."
White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said that the two presidents discussed the Administration's pending proposal for $80.5 million in drug-fighting assistance to Colombia.
"Colombia has made a great effort against narco-traffickers," Gaviria told reporters. "We have had a lot of violence. . . . Three of our presidential candidates were assassinated, thousands of Colombians have been killed. And we really are in the front line all the time."
Gaviria was elected May 27, when millions of Colombians went to the polls in defiance of terrorist threats following the bloodiest campaign in the nation's history.
In a photo session, Bush praised Gaviria for his "forthright commitment" to fight drugs.
Gaviria also said that he asked Bush to help reverse U.S. moves that have cut Colombian revenues from exports of coffee and cut flowers. Colombia has been unhappy over new U.S. tariffs on Colombian flowers and over the U.S.-led collapse of an international coffee-pricing agreement.
"We have a kind of survival at stake every day," Gaviria said, adding that Colombia wants the industrialized world to "understand that Colombia needs some help. It's not economic aid, not military help, but basically what we expect is trade."
Fitzwater said Bush and Gaviria "pledged to continue working toward mutually satisfactory agreements on various trade issues." One White House official said that flowers and coffee had come up in a general discussion on trade.
The United States dropped out of the coffee cartel, complaining that some nations were secretly selling coffee surpluses in Eastern Europe at lower prices than those charged in the United States.
