Pubdate: Mon, 14 Jan 2002
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2002 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author:  Karen DeYoung

U.S. EYES SHIFT IN COLOMBIA POLICY

Greater Aid for War Against Leftist Guerrillas Sought

The Bush administration is considering expanding U.S. 
counternarcotics assistance to Colombia to give more aid to that 
country's counterinsurgency war against leftist guerrillas, according 
to administration officials.

Proposals under high-level discussion include increased intelligence 
sharing on guerrilla activities around the country and training of an 
additional battalion of Colombian troops to serve as a rapid-reaction 
force protecting vital infrastructure, including pipelines used by 
U.S. oil companies, against guerrilla attack.

The U.S. military has trained three such battalions in the past two 
years, but they have been restricted to counternarcotics activities, 
as has virtually all U.S. military assistance in Colombia. 
U.S.-provided military equipment, including helicopters, is also 
limited under law to counternarcotics use, although the Colombian 
government is pressing for those restrictions to be lifted.

Officials stressed that none of the proposals include the possibility 
of direct American combat involvement in Colombia. But expansion of 
U.S. assistance and training beyond the fight against production and 
export of illegal drugs would represent a quantum leap in a highly 
sensitive area of U.S. policy. Since massive amounts of U.S. military 
aid began flowing to Colombia less than two years ago, Congress has 
repeatedly warned against "mission creep" into a Vietnam-like 
counterinsurgency war.

High-level consideration of the proposals, one official said, is a 
direct result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. 
"Before then, there would have been no debate, or only a very limited 
debate, about whether to even think about extending beyond 
counternarcotics aid," the official said. "At least now, these are 
debatable propositions."

The momentum begun with September's attacks moved into high gear last 
weekend, after Colombian President Andres Pastrana unexpectedly 
suspended three-year-old peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed 
Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's largest guerrilla group. 
Pastrana ordered FARC troops to evacuate the Switzerland-sized zone 
he granted the rebel group in 1998 to encourage negotiations.

His announcement sent Colombian army troops to mass near the zone in 
preparations for reoccupying it and driving out the FARC if a 
deadline set at 9:30 last night passed without substantive rebel 
concessions. Right-wing paramilitary troops fighting their own war 
against the guerrillas, in frequent alliance with the army, were also 
prepared to move, and there were widespread fears of impending 
civilian massacres. For its part, the FARC was expected to launch 
attacks throughout the country.

Pastrana's ultimatum sent senior U.S. officials into urgent weekend 
discussions over what one called "authorizations and resources" -- 
what the United States was equipped and allowed to do under law and 
congressional restrictions in aiding the Colombian military. 
Officials were in the middle of an interagency meeting on the subject 
late yesterday afternoon when news arrived that the 9:30 p.m. 
deadline had been suspended, at least temporarily, following 
last-ditch mediation by a group of international diplomats working 
with the United Nations in Colombia.

Whether peace talks get back on track or not, however, Colombia's 
multi-front war will continue, and "it is fair to say we are looking 
for other ways to help" the government prevail, said another 
administration official, who, like all those contacted, declined to 
be identified. At the very least, officials said, there are now six 
days to think about it before Pastrana's next deadline arrives Sunday.

The Pastrana government, which will leave office following elections 
this summer, has argued with increasing urgency that the United 
States must have a more comprehensive military program in Colombia. 
When the Bush administration, which made few changes in the 
bipartisan Colombia policy inherited from its predecessor, launched a 
policy review several months ago, a number of officials, led by 
senior civilians in the Defense Department, argued that the line 
drawn between counternarcotics and counterinsurgency was an 
artificial one that lessened the effectiveness of U.S. aid.

Both the Clinton administration's Plan Colombia, the $1.3 billion 
Colombia aid package passed by Congress in 2000, and the Bush 
administration's $625 million Andean Regional Initiative, approved in 
December, came with sharp congressional restrictions on how the aid 
could be used.

U.S.-trained troops and military equipment, and most U.S. 
intelligence, are restricted to the fight against narcotics 
trafficking in Colombia, which provides more than 90 percent of all 
cocaine and a major part of the heroin in this country. Colombian 
troops eligible for U.S. training have to be thoroughly vetted for 
past human rights abuse and association with the paramilitaries. But 
since the Colombian military has been slow to move against those with 
paramilitary ties, and all three of Colombia's insurgent groups are 
deeply involved in the drug business, the lines have been difficult 
to maintain.

Intelligence cooperation became even more problematic after the 
suspension of U.S. drug surveillance and tracking flights over both 
Colombia and Peru last spring, when a CIA-guided Peruvian Air Force 
fighter shot down an aircraft carrying American missionaries in the 
mistaken belief they were drug traffickers. Although the 
administration completed its investigation into the matter last 
summer, it has taken no action to reinstitute the intelligence 
sharing or flights.

Under the proposals being discussed, that intelligence cooperation 
would be reactivated and expanded to include information on guerrilla 
activities outside the bounds of counterdrug actions. A battalion of 
as many as 1,000 Colombian troops would be trained as a 
rapid-reaction force to protect infrastructure, and consideration 
would be given to providing additional equipment to the Colombian 
army for that purpose.

Officials said the assistance could be justified under "force 
protection" doctrines already in place. That justification would be 
made easier, they said, by President Bush's inclusion of all three 
Colombian insurgency groups on the administration's new lists of 
international terrorist organizations.

Whether the anti-terrorist rationale would fly with Congress "has yet 
to be tested," said one official.
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