Clinton Welcomes Colombian Leader to U.S., Vows Support for Peace Plan

President Clinton, who two years ago revoked the visa of a Colombian president tainted by a drug scandal, welcomed his successor to the White House on Wednesday with a 21-gun salute and a pledge of U.S. support for a controversial new plan to negotiate peace with Colombia’s guerrillas.

“We call on the insurgents and paramilitaries to respond to your bold initiative for peace by ending terrorism, hostage-taking and support for drug traffickers,” Clinton told President Andres Pastrana during a ceremony on the White House South Lawn.

Later, Clinton hailed Pastrana, inaugurated less than three months ago, as a leader “with the will and the courage for peace.”

“I welcome his efforts to open talks with insurgent groups,” Clinton told reporters at a joint news conference in the Rose Garden. “We stand ready to help.”

The effusive praise for 44-year-old Pastrana marked a new era in U.S.-Colombia relations, which reached a nadir in recent years as the Clinton administration feuded bitterly with Pastrana’s immediate predecessor, Ernesto Samper.

U.S. officials accused Samper of accepting money from Colombian drug lords in exchange for lenient policies toward them. After the Colombian Congress failed to remove Samper in 1996, Clinton authorized the State Department to revoke the visa that allowed him to visit the U.S.

Pastrana, elected on a campaign promise to end the bloody leftist insurgencies that have plagued Colombia for nearly four decades, has started to withdraw the army from a large swath of rebel-dominated land.

Pastrana said a demilitarized zone will be set up for 90 days and will offer a practical way of holding secure negotiations. The zone will be established, he said, “so that the representatives of the guerrilla movement . . . [and] the representatives of government can go to that area and their lives would . . . be guaranteed.”

While Colombian critics have assailed Pastrana for apparent concessions to the rebels, Clinton backed the president.

“I think that the path he is pursuing is the one most likely to bring results,” Clinton said.

During the Samper administration, the State Department refused to certify Colombia as fully cooperating with the United States in the war on drugs. Under U.S. law, the loss of certification triggered economic sanctions against Colombia. These were waived by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright this year, but Colombia, the world’s largest producer of cocaine, still suffered the humiliation of having the U.S. brand it as derelict in fighting drug traffickers.

On Wednesday, the two presidents tried to demonstrate a new spirit of cooperation. Clinton and Pastrana, according to a joint communique, signed a statement “committing their nations to use all means at their disposal to stem narcotics production, trafficking, consumption and related crimes.”