Pubdate: Mon, 07 Aug 2000
Source: International Herald-Tribune (France)
Copyright: International Herald Tribune 2000
Contact:  181, Avenue Charles de Gaulle, 92521 Neuilly Cedex, France
Fax: (33) 1 41 43 93 38
Website: http://www.iht.com/
Page: 9
Author: Juanita Darling, Los Angeles Times Service
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1119/a05.htm http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1130/a01.htm

83 U.S. MILITARY TRAINERS JOIN COLOMBIA DRUG WAR

FLORENCIA, Colombia - U.S. Special Forces trainers quietly arrived in
Colombia last week and have begun preparing this country's second
anti-narcotics military battalion, a key element in the $1.3 billion
American anti-drug aid package for Bogota, U.S. and Colombian sources have
confirmed.

Colombian soldiers with rifles drawn surrounded both the trainers and the
U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane that brought them into this southern
town about two hours by highway from guerrilla-held territory.

The 83 trainers then were transported to Larandia, a military base about 65
kilometers (40 miles) from here, according to a Colombian military
spokesman.

The battalion is scheduled to be ready for action by Christmas, a U.S.
Embassy official in Bogota said.

A 12-man brigade headquarters command to oversee the military
anti-narcotics activity will begin training in September, he said.

The 780 soldiers in the new battalion will join the first U.S.-trained
anti-drug battalion, which began functioning Dec. 15, 1999, to provide
support for police anti-narcotics operations.

The police have responsibility for drug-law enforcement in Colombia, which
produces about three-fourths of the world's cocaine and an increasing share
of the heroin consumed in the United States.

But the police increasingly have come under attack from armed groups
guarding drug crops.

Colombian and U.S. narcotics and security specialists have said those
guards are often guerrillas or rightist paramilitary units, which the army
is responsible for fighting.

For that reason, the army is scheduled to receive $521 million in U.S. aid
for training and equipment for the anti-narcotics battalions.

President Bill Clinton signed the final directive to release the aid
Friday, when he also announced he would visit Colombia for the first time
Aug. 30.

The "cornerstone" of the U.S. initiative in Colombia, he said in a written
statement, was a supplemental appropriation that included 4 "tenfold
increase in U.S. funds to promote good government, judicial reform, human
rights protection and economic development in Colombia."
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MAP posted-by: Eric Ernst