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| Colombia: Drug 'Taxes' Fund Arsenals |
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Posted by FoM on July 09, 2001 at 09:39:31 PT By Mike Williams - Cox Washington Bureau Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution 
In a country awash in blood from a 37-year-old civil war and cash from one of the world's most profitable illegal drugs, there's no limit to the appetite for weaponry. Marxist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary squads battle over ideology, but also for control of coca fields. They earn millions in "taxes" from growers and traffickers --- or swap drugs directly for weapons --- building their arsenals and expanding their control of territory. "In the 1980s, there was an explosion of arms moving into the country," said Alfredo Rangel, a security adviser to the Colombian military. "The demand has been sustained throughout the 1990s. In the last three years, the manpower of the paramilitary forces has grown by 80 percent, while the largest guerrilla group has grown by 40 percent." With both sides recruiting to add to the current estimated force of 25,000 guerrillas and 8,000 paramilitaries, demand for weapons is intense. The arms make their way into Colombia via a spider web of routes: smuggled aboard ocean freighters, air-dropped into the jungle, spirited across remote borders in trucks or hidden in boats plying dozens of rivers, authorities say. Many of the weapons come from former Soviet bloc nations and are often moved by Russian groups that officials say are involved in the drugs-for-guns trade. But there also are American-made arms, some smuggled from Central American nations where they were used in conflicts in the 1980s. Between 1995 and June 2000, Colombia's military seized more than 15,000 small arms --- pistols, rifles, machine guns and other weapons --- along with 2.5 million rounds of ammunition. As with smuggled drugs, authorities assume they are capturing only a tiny percentage of what is out there. "It's very difficult to control and very easy for the weapons to come in," said Col. Alberto Ruiz of the Colombian Judicial Police. "We are a nation rich in navigable rivers, mountains and forests. The Amazon is like a sea in and of itself." By tapping the drug trade, Marxist guerrillas and paramilitaries have transformed themselves from rag-tag bands into well-funded armies. Colombian officials estimate the largest guerrilla group, the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia, or FARC, earns $250 million to $350 million yearly from drugs, extortion and ransom from kidnappings. So bold and rich are the combatants and the drug smugglers they protect that some tried to buy a Russian submarine that could have smuggled tons of cocaine and arms per trip, according to court documents in the Miami trial of a Russian mob boss. Others tried building their own submarine, which was discovered by stunned authorities in a village warehouse. Russian engineers reportedly directed construction of the half-completed vessel, which cost tens of millions of dollars. The nexus of drug money and a bitter war has prompted a controversial U.S. commitment of $1.3 billion to eradicate coca and slow the source of money used to buy weapons and wage war. Recent cases illustrate how the smuggling works: In August 2000, officials in Peru announced they had broken up a ring that had delivered 10,000 AK-47 automatic rifles to FARC. The weapons were bought in Jordan by Peruvians posing as military officers, then air-dropped into Colombia, said Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori and his security adviser, Vladimiro Montesinos, who announced the bust with great fanfare. But Fujimori's political opponents became suspicious that Montesinos himself masterminded the deal. Montesinos, now in a Peruvian prison awaiting trial on various charges, is rumored to have made millions in kickbacks on other arms deals. In April, Colombian troops chalked up a victory in the drug war by capturing Luis Fernando da Costa, a Brazilian drug lord known as "Freddy Seashore." Da Costa allegedly supplied thousands of weapons to FARC in exchange for cocaine he smuggled across the Brazilian border and then to the United States and Europe. Weapons also have come from Russian traffickers. According to court documents, Russian mobster Ludwig "Tarzan" Fainberg, who ran a Miami strip club, brokered the sale of two Soviet military helicopters to the Cali drug cartel, then tried to buy a Soviet navy submarine for the cartel. An affidavit in the case said U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration operatives identified "46 Eastern bloc aircraft, helicopter and fixed-wing," in Colombia being used to transport narcotics and chemicals for processing narcotics. The Russian connection worries Colombian officials. As early as 1998, Russia's ambassador to Colombia, Ednan Agayev, said police in his nation had learned that "Russian ringleaders" were trading "long- and short-barreled weapons" for Colombian drugs and that Russian authorities had set up cooperative channels with the FBI and Colombia. "It's globalization," Rangel said. "Weapons come to Colombia in exchange for cocaine that goes to New York or Europe. It's pure capitalism, a primitive but effective form of barter." Note: Trafficking fuels rebel expansion. Special Report: Small Arms, Mass Destruction On the Web: Arms smuggling to Colombia: http://www.nisat.org/ Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA) Colombia Drug War News CannabisNews Articles - FARC Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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