Pubdate: Tue, 18 Jun 2002
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2002 The Miami Herald
Contact:  http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262
Author: Tim Johnson

COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT-ELECT TO BE BRIEFED ON U.S. POLICY SHIFT

WASHINGTON - In a dramatic and historic shift, the U.S. government is about 
to raise the stakes on its involvement in Colombia, changing its focus to 
include fighting guerrillas as well as combating the drug trade.

President-elect Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, who began three days of talks in 
Washington on Tuesday, will be briefed on the changes during his visit. 
He'll also feel intense pressure from U.S. officials who want Colombia to 
pony up more of its own money and soldiers to combat rampant lawlessness.

Almost without exception, analysts believe Uribe's hard-line platforms, 
combined with the U.S. policy shift, will bring about a near-term increase 
in bloodshed in Colombia.

''The security situation is going to get worse before it gets better,'' 
said Stephen Johnson, a Latin America policy analyst at the Heritage 
Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Earlier this year, the Bush administration asked Congress to lift 
restrictions that limit U.S. assistance, including scores of helicopters, 
only to counter-narcotics efforts. If granted, Colombia could employ 
U.S.-provided aircraft and other assistance in its war against two 
guerrilla groups and an outlaw paramilitary force.

The House approved the request, which was included in a massive $30 billion 
worldwide counter-terrorism bill, on May 24 and the Senate followed suit on 
June 7. Conferees from the two chambers are resolving differences in the 
two bills, and may finish their work by the end of June.

Equally as important, the Bush administration is mulling other broad 
changes in U.S. policy toward Colombia, including a plan to share 
intelligence with Colombia to help it target and kill senior leaders of the 
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who have eluded capture for 
decades.

''It will change the nature of the struggle,'' one senior Bush 
administration official said, adding that the plan is ''to disrupt the 
command and control of the FARC leadership'' and keep commanders constantly 
on the run, perhaps feuding among themselves as pursuit intensifies.

Pentagon officials foresee a ''strike and hold'' military strategy to help 
Colombian soldiers move back into huge swaths of territory where guerrillas 
and right-wing paramilitary forces have free rein and regain ''effective 
sovereignty,'' the official said.

Uribe met with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Tuesday afternoon and was 
to consult with Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle in the early evening. 
Today, he'll speak with Secretary of State Colin Powell. National Security 
Advisor Condoleezza Rice receives him at the White House on Thursday, 
before Uribe heads on to Canada and Europe.

It is on Capitol Hill where Uribe may get the most mixed reception.

A breakdown in peace talks in Colombia in February convinced many U.S. 
lawmakers that Washington must expand its role in Colombia, but some 
legislators now question Colombia's own commitment to pay for and prosecute 
the war.

''Everybody from the Colombian desk officers to Powell, to the National 
Security Council to the Pentagon, everyone is going to hammer home to Uribe 
this message: Don't wait for the U.S. Marines to get there. They are not 
coming,'' said a Senate Republican staff member, who insisted on anonymity.

Colombia has received nearly $2 billion in U.S. assistance over the past 
three years, making it by far the largest U.S. recipient of aid in this 
hemisphere, and the White House has proposed $538.2 million for the next 
fiscal year, beginning Oct. 1.

''There have been many verbal commitments [from Colombia], but too little 
action, and only meager results,'' said Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont 
Democrat who is chairman of the foreign operations panel of the key Senate 
Appropriations Committee. ``This needs to be a partnership, especially as 
the Bush administration continues to ask for more money to expand our 
involvement there.''

Some legislators now feel Colombia spends too little of its national budget 
on defense, only forces its poor people to fulfill military service, and 
has grown lax against corruption.

Uribe, who takes office Aug. 7, has pledged to double the size of the 
Colombian armed forces and set up a one million-strong civilian defense 
force. Some observers voice skepticism.

''Double the size of the army? Where's he going to get the money for 
that?'' asked a knowledgeable congressional staffer, who noted that 
Colombia never fulfilled commitments for social spending under its 
five-year Plan Colombia counter-narcotics program adopted in 2000.

Uribe is certain to get an earful of questions about a scandal over $2 
million in missing U.S. assistance that has already implicated some 60 
members of the Colombian National Police, including senior officers in the 
anti-narcotics squad.

He's also likely to be grilled over what a General Accounting Office 
summary describes as a lack of cooperation by the Colombian armed forces in 
fighting narcotics trafficking.

The one-page GAO summary, obtained by The Herald, says the Colombian army 
was supposed to provide 250 pilots for training on 14 Black Hawk and 30 
Super Huey helicopters given to Colombia but ``has been slow in providing 
the number of trainees needed.''

Moreover, the air force has failed to train pilots for the Black Hawks and 
makes ''very little use'' of U.S.-provided A-37 aircraft ''to interdict 
drug trafficking operations,'' the summary says.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens