This year's presidential campaign has so far ignored foreign policy altogether, with a few exceptions, like President Clinton's triumphant announcement of his new Colombian aid package. But a close look at commentators in the region shows more concern than cheering. Political scientist and World Policy Institute fellow Andrew Reding sampled opinion in influential journals in Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico for New California Media which monitors international and ethnic news for Pacific News Service (www.ncmonline.com).

NO LIGHT AT END OF TUNNEL -- "SEMANA" OF COLOMBIA

President Clinton's $1.7 billion aid package for Colombia comes in for some thorough criticism by Antonio Caballero in the Colombian weekly, Semana.

Clinton says the aid is intended to back democracy and human rights, Caballero notes, while drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey is more forthcoming, saying it is intended to recover control of southern Colombia, currently held by FARC guerrillas.

In fact, $1.274 billion -- some 80 percent of the total -- is to buy armaments, including planes, helicopters, and automatic weapons. Only $238 million is destined for human rights and reinforcing democracy and the judicial system.

This is not nearly enough to win the war, Caballero writes. In Vietnam, it cost about a $1 million for each Vietcong killed. Applying that formula, the aid would kill fewer than 1,500 guerrillas of a total force ten times that number. Consider inflation, which has greatly diminished the dollar's purchasing power in the past 30 years, and the harm inflicted on the guerrillas is likely to be negligible.

Moreover, the aid does not address the causes of the guerrilla war. The problem is not a shortage of weapons -- that is the one thing the Colombian military has never lacked. The problem is with democracy, human rights, and the judicial system. Far from addressing the causes of civil conflict, U.S. aid is aggravating them.

Clinton's Colombia policy resembles Henry Kissinger's in Angola when he was secretary of state. Kissinger argued that U.S. aid to UNITA guerrillas would not be enough for them to win, but enough to keep the Marxist government from consolidating control. Thirty years later, the country is in ruins, with an unending war.

President Andres Pastrana says Colombians should be happy about the U.S. aid package. "Is that the vision of our future," concludes Caballero, "that in Pastrana's opinion, should make us Colombians feel really happy?"

QUICK FIX FOR U.S. ARMS MAKERS -- "QUINTO DIA" OF VENEZUELA

The first battle of Clinton's plan for Colombia was fought on U.S. soil, writes Orlando Ochoa Teran in the July 14 issue of the Venezuelan newsweekly, Quinto Dia.

Curiously, he says, the combatants did not wear battle fatigues, but Armani suits and Givenchy ties. Lobbyists for Bell Textron and for United Technologies Corporation -- both helicopter manufacturers -- sparred in the halls of Congress, fighting "a capitalist battle with the same ferocity as one would expect from" guerrillas or the right-wing paramilitary.

United Technologies was trying to sell its powerful UH-60L Black Hawks, Bell Textron its fast and agile UH-1H Hueys. Both have invested heavily in political campaigns. Between 1996 and 1998, Bell Textron gave $551,816 to the Republicans, and $364,420 to the Democrats; United Technologies gave $362,340 to the Republicans and $347,200 to the Democrats.

The Black Hawks are made in Connecticut, the Hueys in Texas. Campaign contributions and geography contributed to differing allocations in the House and Senate. The House voted for 60 Black Hawks and 30 Hueys; the Senate for 30 Black Hawks and 60 Hueys. The conference committee settled on 18 of the expensive Black Hawks (which cost 6 times as much as the Hueys) and 60 Hueys. The Colombian military will get all but two of the Black Hawks and half the Hueys; the remainder will go to the Colombian police.

General Fred Woerner, retired head of the U.S. Southern Command, says all the fuss about what helicopter to buy misses an essential point: the guerrillas will respond by buying surface-to-air missiles, which can down either type. ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER FOR ECUADOR -- "PROCESO" OF MEXICO

The international effects of the U.S. military aid package to Colombia are the focus of an article in the Mexican weekly newsmagazine, Proceso.

In an article entitled "A Plan For Colombia With Repercussions In Ecuador" journalist Orlando Perez points out that U.S. plans for military action and for large-scale application of herbicides in southern Colombia will displace an estimated 35,000-150,000 peasants into neighboring Ecuador, joining five thousand Colombian who have already fled.

Because that part of Ecuador is Amazonian rainforest, such an influx could be devastating, as impoverished refugees slash and burn the forest to grow food.

Compounding the problem are U.S. plans for biological warfare against coca cultivation in Ecuador. Ecuador is to become a field testing area for applying fungi that attack coca plants. But scientists fear the fungi may wreak havoc with other plants, disturbing the area's ecological equilibrium, and harming other crops as well.

The fungi are also toxic to animals and humans that eat treated plants. As chewing coca leaves is legal in nearby Peru and Bolivia, the program could lead to widespread human illness.

Of further concern is the impact of the migration and ecological damage on the native peoples that inhabit the rainforest. Unlike Colombia, Ecuador has a very high percentage of indigenous peoples, and they are well-organized, having recently brought down a national government.

The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Amazonia, which represents 1.5 million indigenous Ecuadorians, is organizing in opposition to the U.S. plans for the region. It points out that smaller native communities in Colombia have already been invaded by guerrilla and paramilitary forces, and their people are being used as human shields.