Pubdate: Thu, 05 May 2005
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2005 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst Newspaper
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198
Author: John Otis, South America Bureau
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

COLOMBIANS ARREST TWO U.S. SOLDIERS

The Allegations of Arms Trafficking Are Latest Blow to Relations
Between the Two Nations

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA - Colombian police announced Wednesday that two
American soldiers have been arrested in a plot to traffic ammunition,
the second time in recent weeks that U.S. troops stationed here were
detained on smuggling allegations.

The Americans were captured Tuesday in the town of Carmen de Apicala,
56 miles southwest of Bogota, after authorities raided a condominium
there and found 32,900 rounds of ammunition of various calibers,
according to National Police Chief Jorge Daniel Castro.

"It's a huge amount of munitions," Castro said.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman confirmed the arrests but provided few
details. The names and ranks of the Americans were not released.

Bogota's Caracol TV station, which first reported the arrests, said
the Americans intended to sell the ammunition to illegal right-wing
paramilitary forces. According to the station, a former Colombian army
sergeant, who also was arrested, was to be the broker between the
Americans and the paramilitaries.

Splintered Nation

Colombia, which receives about $800 million annually in U.S. aid, is
mired in a three-way civil war involving the army, paramilitaries and
Marxist guerrillas.

The rebels and the paramilitaries earn millions of dollars from the
illegal drug trade and have been declared terrorist organizations by
the United States.

Castro said the arrests came after a Colombian man stopped on a
highway by traffic police led agents to the condominium. While the
officers were investigating the cache, the two U.S. soldiers walked
in.

The Americans "did not give a satisfactory explanation" and were
arrested, Castro said.

Colombian TV broadcast images of the two detained Americans and said
they were marksmanship instructors at the nearby Tolemaida military
base.

The arrests were the latest blow to the reputation of American
soldiers based in Colombia as part of a massive U.S. military aid program.

March 29, five troops were arrested after 35 pounds of cocaine was
found aboard a U.S. military aircraft bound from Colombia to El Paso.

Last month, the attorney general's office announced an investigation
into a hit-and-run incident in August 2004 that allegedly involved a
U.S. soldier and left two Colombians dead.

In both cases, the Americans were whisked to the United States.

The incidents have led some Colombian legislators to call for a
revision of a treaty that allows U.S. military personnel to be tried
in the United States for crimes committed in Colombia.

Finding a Balance

Since 2000, Washington has provided nearly $4 billion in aid to this
South American country. Last year, the U.S. Congress voted to increase
the number of American military personnel allowed in Colombia from 400
to 800.

There are about 500 U.S. military trainers in the country, where they
perform a wide array of duties but are prohibited from getting
directly involved in combat.

"We have helped the Colombian army come a long way," one U.S. military
trainer said in an interview this week.

But critics contend that Americans are exposed to the risks of war and
the threat of kidnappings, as well as the temptation of easy money
through drug and arms trafficking.

In 2000, for example, the wife of a U.S. Army colonel was sentenced to
five years in prison for trying to smuggle heroin to the United
States. Her husband received a five-month sentence after he admitted
that he knew his wife was laundering drug profits.
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