Spin Control.

COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA RECENTLY TRAVELED stateside to lobby for US$1.6 billion in emergency military and economic assistance. The bid to make his nation the fourth-largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid met skepticism as some in the U.S. Congress feared the money would be thrown away.

"Two years ago, nobody in Colombia or around the world thought it possible to establish a dialogue between the government and the guerrillas, but today it exists."

--Victor Ricardo, the Colombian government's chief negotiator during talks in Sweden (Orlando Sentinel)

"If people like me are not involved in this war, the bad guys are going to win."-Colombian President Andres Pastrana (Newsweek) "This isn't a war. I've been in a war."

--U.S. drug czar and retired four-star general Barry McCaffrey (Agence France Presse)

"What we have here is hunger, misery and exploitation and that's not going to end with rifles, machine guns and bombs."

--FARC Commander Manuel "Tirofijo "Marulanda responding to the U.S. aid package (Reuters)

"Colombia isn't as dangerous as it seems from abroad. Colombia's principal problem is its image."

--America Online CEO and founder Jim Kimsey on a business trip to Cartagena (AP)