cannabisnews.com: U.S. Seeks Expanded Military Effort in Colombia





U.S. Seeks Expanded Military Effort in Colombia
Posted by FoM on September 01, 2001 at 07:58:15 PT
By Tod Robberson, The Dallas Morning News
Source: Dallas Morning News 
The Bush administration will examine ways of expanding its military effort to fight drug traffickers and insurgents in Colombia as it seeks funding for an $882 million regional anti-drug package, a senior U.S. official said Friday. "I think that's part of the ongoing review between our two countries," the official said as a U.S. delegation, headed by Marc Grossman, undersecretary of state for international political affairs, concluded a three-day visit to Colombia. 
The official said the possible expansion of U.S. military training and anti-drug assistance, now encompassed under a $1.5 billion assistance program known as Plan Colombia, would be a matter of continuing discussion with President Andrés Pastrana's government in the coming months. Secretary of State Colin Powell is scheduled to continue the discussions during a Sept. 11-12 visit. Mr. Pastrana, who has less than a year left in office, is under fire for having embraced a U.S. military-assistance package that, many Colombians believe, is partly responsible for an increase in violence and guerrilla attacks around the country. His peace process has virtually ground to a halt while the U.S. and Colombian governments celebrate the results of a 6,000-troop offensive against the nation's largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Both governments accuse the FARC and its arch-rival, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, of supporting and profiting from the drug trade. "Is this success a result of our advice?" the U.S. official said. "I think that the increase in the effectiveness of the Colombian military and the Colombian police, in terms of the counternarcotics mission, is the result of the training and the equipment we have provided. And I think that's a good thing and not a bad thing." The official said the possibility of expanding the U.S. role will be discussed in Washington and Bogota "as President Pastrana looks down the road to the successes they've had, and what they need to do now, and as our country looks at how do we continue to support" the military and police counter-narcotics effort. "That will continue to be part of the ongoing dialogue." His remarks were in sharp contrast to those of Peter Rodman, assistant secretary of defense for international policy, who told reporters last week that Washington was "rethinking" its support of Plan Colombia. "You never, ever, ever have a policy that's this big and this complicated without trying to make sure that it's right all the time," the official said. "But there is absolutely no – zero, none – difference between us and anybody else in town about our support for Plan Colombia and the fact that Colombia matters. ... There is no rethinking." The official said the results of the military campaign, as well as an intensive aerial herbicide-spraying campaign that has been in progress since last November, are being assessed. More than 120,000 acres of drug crops have been sprayed. "If it's true, which I think it is, that there have been some successes now on the counternarcotics side as a result of what the Colombians do ... and what we've helped them do," the official said, "we would need to talk about whether we want to do more of that." Gen. Peter Pace, chief of the U.S. Southern Command, accompanied Mr. Grossman Thursday on a tour of the Colombian military bases where the U.S. training has been focused. Another senior U.S. official said that both countries agree on the need to expand a Colombian government security presence throughout the country, where nearly one-fifth of the nation's 1,074 municipalities do not even have a police station, much less a military presence. "First of all, it is a fact that the Colombian military and the Colombian police combined are not strong enough to provide security throughout the entire country," the official said. "Everyone recognizes that there is a need to have that capacity increased." The officials, who spoke to foreign correspondents on condition of anonymity, did not say whether an expansion of U.S. assistance would involve a request to increase the presence of U.S. military forces here. Congress has set limits of 500 active-duty military personnel and 300 military-contract workers in Colombia at any given time. The U.S. troops are involved in various training and support activities related to anti-drug interdiction and the fight against insurgents supporting the drug trade. U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson has said publicly in recent weeks that Washington is studying an expansion of the U.S. training mission to establish a combat-ready counterdrug/counterinsurgency brigade of nearly 2,000 troops in southern Colombia, where the presence of FARC and self-defense forces are heavy. "In southern Colombia, the U.S.-trained counterdrug brigade has shut down scores of narcotics fields and laboratories," Mr. Grossman told reporters Friday. "The combination of aerial spraying of coca plantations and voluntary, manual eradication for farmers who sign crop-substitution pacts with the government has had a serious impact on drug production in southern Colombia." However, officials acknowledged that in spite of what he described as heavy U.S. expenditures, the amount of acreage under drug-crop cultivation in Colombia has actually increased since Plan Colombia made its debut last year. "I can't give precise figure on how much drug production might have been increased without America's effort, but I would say that ... the amount of increase would have been greater had the effort not been made," said Rand Beers, the assistant secretary of state who is in charge of U.S. counternarcotics efforts in Colombia. "I have no doubt that, without our effort, the amount of that increase would have been higher." Mr. Grossman fielded numerous questions from reporters about a herbicide-spraying campaign that has prompted complaints from farmers in southern Colombia. The complaints have ranged from skin rashes and other health problems to what the farmers in some areas say is the near-total destruction of their legal subsistence crops. The two governments are negotiating plans to reimburse farmers who can prove legal crops were destroyed during eradication flights. Mr. Grossman defended glyphosate, the chemical herbicide used in the spraying, and welcomed independent, scientific study to determine whether the alleged health effects are a result of the U.S.-sponsored eradication campaign. "We say all these things not because we're trying to be defensive about it but because there is a public concern about it in Colombia. And that's fair," he said. "This is exactly the kind of issue that ought to be talked about in public. We think the facts are on our side." Note: Administration wants to step up fight against drugs, insurgents.Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)Author: Tod Robberson, The Dallas Morning NewsPublished: September 1, 2001Copyright: 2001 The Dallas Morning NewsWebsite: http://www.dallasnews.com/Contact: letterstoeditor dallasnews.comRelated Articles & Web Site:Colombia Drug War Newshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/colombia.htmAct One: A Net Across The Caribbean http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10778.shtmlU.S. May Send More Aid To Colombiahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10776.shtmlPowell To Travel To Colombiahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10745.shtml
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