Pubdate: Mon, 10 Sep 2001
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2001 The Dallas Morning News
Contact:  http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author: Tod Robberson

U.S. AID AT ISSUE AS COLOMBIA CONFLICT SHIFTS

Questions For Powell Visit: Is Support Helping Fight Against Drug 
Trade? Is More Needed?

LOS POZOS, Colombia - When President Clinton visited Colombia one 
year ago, few officials of either country questioned that U.S. 
support was essential to save Colombia's democracy from a siege by 
guerrillas and drug traffickers.

Secretary of State Colin Powell will find a dramatically different 
scenario when he takes his first trip to Colombia on Tuesday. The 
nation's two largest rebel groups are on the defensive, according to 
President Andr=C8s Pastrana, and the U.S.-backed military is making 
unprecedented advances to retake lost ground.

At the same time, however, there are strong indications that 
guerrilla ranks are growing rapidly, as is the amount of acreage 
under drug-crop cultivation.

The question now pressing decision-makers in both countries is 
whether $1.5 billion in mostly military aid from Washington has made 
a difference in Colombia and whether additional aid is needed to 
complete the job.

Commanders of the nation's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary 
Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, insist it is no coincidence that 
the army launched a recent 6,000-troop offensive just as Mr. Powell 
and other senior U.S. officials began a series of visits to Colombia 
starting last month.

"They want to show the United States - Mr. Powell more than anyone - 
some big results, because they want to get more aid," Raul Reyes, a 
top FARC commander, said in an interview in the guerrilla's 
government-granted haven in southern Colombia.

Mr. Reyes said everything has been orchestrated to persuade 
Washington to expand its contribution to the counter-narcotics 
program known as Plan Colombia. The Bush administration says it is 
considering that very prospect at the same time Congress reviews the 
results achieved so far.

"They need more dollars. They need more helicopters. They need more 
advisers than they have now in Colombia," Mr. Reyes added. "To make 
it happen, they have to present this great success."

Aid Parameters

U.S. military aid is strictly limited to units involved in fighting 
drug traffickers and armed groups that support the trade. Since both 
governments contend that the FARC is deeply involved in the drug 
trade across southern Colombia, they can be attacked using 
U.S.-supplied equipment.

Colombian military commanders, however, are minimizing the U.S. 
contribution to recent battlefield successes, in which they claim to 
have inflicted scores of guerrilla casualties.

Mr. Reyes said the military offensive was not as successful as the 
government asserts, causing "fewer than 30" guerrilla deaths. He 
acknowledged, however, that a FARC field commander was killed.

The military command denies that any part of the offensive was timed 
to coincide with the visit of Mr. Powell or another high-level 
delegation that toured Colombia from Aug. 29 to 31.

But commanders acknowledge that Colombia has benefited significantly 
from the help it has received, and that the military still needs and 
badly wants more U.S. aid, particularly if both governments hope to 
turnback the insurgent groups that provide support and protection for 
Colombia's drug trafficking industry.

In Bogot=B7, Gen. Fernando Tapias, the nation's top military commander, 
said U.S.-trained counternarcotics forces did not play a role in a 
month-old offensive against the rebels.

The Plan Colombia aid, he said, "didn't have anything to do with the 
operations going on in other parts of the country."

Not one of the newly created Rapid Deployment Force battalions that 
participated in the offensive has received counter-narcotics aid, he 
added. "The [U.S.-made] helicopters that were used belong to the 
Colombian forces. Not a single helicopter provided under Plan 
Colombia was authorized for use."

Another military source said, however, that U.S. aerial and satellite 
intelligence played a crucial role in monitoring the guerrilla 
mobilization so that Colombian troops could react quickly.

Another source said U.S. contractors have been dropped into southern 
Colombia's jungles by helicopter to install a network of small 
antennas and relay stations. The network has enabled both governments 
to monitor even the most remote guerrilla radio communications. The 
United States has allocated about $163 million under Plan Colombia 
for intelligence-gathering, radar upgrades and airborne 
reconnaissance.

Need For Transportation

What Colombia's military needs now is transportation, commanders say. 
The military's fleet of U.S. and Russian-made helicopters numbers 
fewer than 50 to cover territory equal in size to Italy, Germany and 
Poland combined. The United States already has begun delivering the 
16 Blackhawk and 30 Huey UH-1H helicopters funded under Plan 
Colombia. But the deliveries will not be completed until late this 
year.

In spite of the offensive's results, which included an aerial attack 
against an estimated 1,000 guerrillas emerging from the haven, 
Colombian officials say there are signs of problems to come.

Mr. Pastrana told foreign reporters in Bogot=B7 on Thursday that it 
might be necessary to evaluate the results of Plan Colombia so far to 
determine whether it is helping to solve the nation's problems or 
making them worse.

"The conclusions are not good," he said. "Drugs continue to be the 
biggest or second-biggest business in the world." He described the 
international drug-trafficking industry as a $500 billion-a-year 
business.

Colombia and the United States contend that the primary source of 
income for the FARC, as well as its archrival, the United 
Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, is drugs. With drug revenue 
mounting, the two governments contend, Colombia's armed groups have 
been able to launch massive recruitment campaigns.

According to a Colombian military report, a new assessment of FARC 
strength dwarfs the previous government assessment of about 16,500 
fighters. The new assessment notes the presence of an estimated 
10,000 additional FARC operatives inside Colombia's largest urban 
centers.

A military source described the members as serving in a noncombat 
role but providing intelligence to FARC commanders about potential 
kidnap targets, weak points in government defenses, and potential 
sites for planting bombs.

Mr. Reyes declined to comment on the military figures. "At the same 
time, he conceded that the Colombian army is a better fighting 
machine today than before the U.S. training began.

"To say they aren't prepared would be, well, not to speak seriously," 
he said. "They have to be well prepared because they spend all of 
their time combating the Colombian people. "

Gen. Tapias insisted that neither Colombian nor U.S. tax dollars are 
being used to wipe out the guerrillas. Rather, the goal is to sever 
their links to the drug trade and force them to engage in serious 
peace negotiations.

"Our military strategy is not designed to wage a war of 
extermination," he said. "We are not looking only for a military 
solution, but a military solution combined with a political 
settlement. ... If the military solution fails, then there is no 
chance to reach a negotiated political settlement."
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