Title 3--The President no fundamental institutional reform to meet the law enforcement challenge Cambodia faces from drug traffickers and other lawless elements. Thus, de- spite some improvements, Cambodia still failed to meet the legal standards for full certification. A vital national interests certification is necessary this year in order to protect U.S. vital national interests in Cambodia, including promoting de- mocracy in Cambodia and stability in the region. Democracy in Cambodia is not yet firmly established. The democratically-elected coalition govern- ment, which came to power in Cambodia last year continues to face enor- mous challenges on all fronts, including the formation of an international tribunal to try former leaders of the Khmer Rouge. Cambodia also remains vulnerable to drug trafficking and other crime upsurges. Should counter- drug sanctions be imposed, it would not be possible for the United States to provide strategically-placed assistance to respond to potential crises or to strengthen Cambodia's economic and institutional bases for a democratic system. On balance, the risks to U.S. interests in promoting democracy and stability in the region if counter-drug sanctions were imposed would out- weigh the risks posed by Cambodia's failure to fully implement effective drug control. Colombia Colombia remains the world's largest cocaine producer: over three-quar- ters of the world's cocaine hydrochloride is processed in Colombia. Still, Colombia met the certification criteria in 1999 due to important strides made in combating illicit drugs and its full cooperation with USG counter- drug efforts. The Pastrana administration has demonstrated a clear commit- ment to combating the illegal drug industry in Colombia. That commitment led to a number of very concrete achievements in 1999. In September, the Government of Colombia (GOC) unveiled its "Plan Co- lombia," a comprehensive strategy to address the many interrelated chal- lenges facing the country. The USG supports the work of the GOC in for- mulating and beginning to implement this comprehensive strategy. Impor- tantly, both "Plan Colombia" and the Pastrana administration's National Drug Control Strategy couple alternative development with aerial eradi- cation of illicit crops. Colombian authorities continued to cooperate with the USG on a variety of specific projects. In October, Operation Millennium, a coordinated oper- ation among Colombian, Mexican and U.S. law enforcement agencies, re- sulted in the arrest of more than 30 suspects. The Colombian National Police (CNP) continued its outstanding counter- drug tradition. The CNP received increased support from the Colombian armed services and is poised to begin joint operations in southern Colom- bia with the army's first special counter-drug battalion. Such joint oper- ations are vital for the future of the program due to the threat to counter- drug operations from heavily armed traffickers and other illegal armed groups that are involved in many aspects of drug trafficking. The GOC made particularly strong advances in combating maritime traf- ficking. A port security program is now operating in all of the nation's major ports, and in the past year resulted in the seizure of \1776 metric tons of cocaine. In September, a standing interdiction operations plan was signed to augment an existing maritime agreement, leading to three U.S.- 364
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