A Seaside Chat About Drugs

The Andean summit's main agenda will be salving wounded egos

Even for a country so security-minded that it assigned 1,300 soldiers to protect the contestants in a beauty pageant last year, Colombia's precautions for this week's antidrug summit are extraordinarily tight. Though a spokesman for the drug cartels against which Colombia has been waging an all-out war promised that they would not make trouble, the government is taking no risks. Hundreds of Colombian and U.S. undercover agents disguised as beach vendors, taxi drivers, bellboys and happy-go-lucky tourists are prowling the Caribbean resort city of Cartagena, where George Bush and the leaders of the three South American nations that are the source...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!