Pubdate: Fri, 15 Nov 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: Gary Marx, Chicago Tribune

BATTLE OVER COLOMBIAN PIPELINE SPARKS INCREASING U.S. INVOLVEMENT IN CIVIL WAR

SARAVENA, Colombia - On the edge of the war-torn city of Saravena, U.S. 
military advisers are preparing for a major escalation of American 
involvement in Colombia's 38-year-old civil war.

Until now, U.S. military and economic assistance to Colombia has gone 
largely to fight the drug war. But in January, between 60 and 100 U.S. 
Special Forces soldiers will arrive in Saravena and the surrounding area to 
train thousands of Colombian troops to protect a 500-mile pipeline owned in 
part by Occidental Petroleum Corp. of Los Angeles.

Their arrival will mark the United States' first close involvement in a 
bloody and complex conflict waged between and among two leftist insurgent 
groups, a right-wing paramilitary force and the out-numbered Colombian 
military.

At Saravena's military base, four U.S. advisers are busy constructing 10 
helicopter pads and fortifying the barracks that will house the U.S. 
Special Forces troops.

Sandbags stacked 6 feet high ring the barracks. Sandbags are piled on the 
roofs, too, so that homemade rebel rockets made of gas canisters would roll 
off the barracks before exploding.

"This is one of the most difficult regions in Colombia relative to threat 
but we understand what we are getting ourselves into," said Wade Chapple, 
one of the four U.S. advisers. "We know who is who, and we do our best to 
minimize our vulnerability."

The battle over the pipeline, which winds through northern Colombia 
carrying 120,000 barrels of oil a day, has already lasted the better part 
of 15 years. The pipeline is a key source of revenue for both the leftist 
insurgents and the Colombian government.

Since 1986 the pipeline has been bombed 950 times by leftist rebels, 
shutting it down for months on end and costing the cash-starved Colombian 
government $2.5 billion in lost revenues.

The rebels, who view the pipeline as a symbol of U.S. imperialism, have 
used the attacks to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from local 
businesses and others.

The Colombian government, after years of inaction, is trying to wrest back 
control. For that, according to recently elected President Alvaro Uribe, 
Colombia needs the expertise and weaponry of the U.S. military.

The dramatic shift in U.S. policy faced opposition from some lawmakers, 
human rights workers and others who feared U.S. troops could get bogged 
down in an interminable war where the insurgents fight with car bombs, 
homemade rockets and assassinations.

Another concern is that the U.S. advisers will be working closely with a 
Colombian military that long has been accused of human rights violations. 
And some critics say the plan forces U.S. taxpayers to foot the bill for 
the security of a private oil company.

But the Bush administration won congressional approval in July for the 
first part of a proposed $104 million pipeline-protection package by 
arguing that Colombia's fight against leftist rebels is part of the United 
States' global battle against terrorism. The State Department has labeled 
all three of Colombia's insurgent groups "terrorist" organizations.

Protecting Colombian oil also fits into the longstanding goal of reducing 
U.S. dependence on Middle East oil, especially in light of possible 
military action against Iraq. Colombia is the ninth largest supplier of 
imported oil to the United States.

"The United States receives three percent of its (oil) needs from 
Colombia," said Anne Patterson, the U.S. ambassador to Colombia. "That's 
not much. But with problems in other countries each percentage is important."

The pipeline runs through miles of guerrilla-held territory, along the 
porous Venezuelan border and up steep, inaccessible mountains before 
emptying at the Caribbean coast. Most guerrilla attacks occur in a 50-mile 
stretch that passes near Saravena.

U.S. military planners are hoping first to improve Colombia's intelligence 
capabilities. Then, with U.S.-supplied helicopters, better-trained 
counterinsurgency units can quickly engage the rebels, who up to now have 
operated with relative impunity.

"That's a long-term project," said Chapple, a U.S. Army special operations 
officer. "The terrain is difficult and there are large distances that we 
cover. You can't put soldiers (on the pipeline) every five feet. Lack of 
mobility is a concern."

In Saravena, a ramshackle town located on a broad, lush plain, officials 
and residents greet the plan for U.S. forces with a mixture of anguish and 
support.

Some say they are tired of the conflict and are ready to back Uribe's 
get-tough policy. Others fear that the arrival of U.S military trainers, 
their helicopters and other equipment will only intensify a conflict that 
kills 3,000 Colombians a year and has devastated the town.

"I am one of those people who think that more war will not solve anything," 
said Saravena Mayor Jose Trinidad Sierra.

Already this year attacks by leftist rebels in Saravena have killed a 
half-dozen people and injured more than 50 others. Launching homemade 
rockets, the rebels have turned the downtown area into rubble, destroying 
the city hall, the city council building, the prosecutor's office and many 
other structures.

Craters from rocket attacks pock-mark the town's main plaza.

"My family prays for me," said Omar Neiza, a 22-year-old Colombian police 
officer in Saravena. "What we hope for is to get shot in the leg or get 
sick so that we can get out of here."

The pipeline, which transports oil from the giant 1.2 billion barrel Cano 
Limon field, has been a magnet for Colombian insurgents since it was opened 
under a joint operating agreement between Occidental and Colombia's 
state-owned oil company, Ecopetrol.

For years, Saravena and the surrounding region was dominated by the 
National Liberation Army, or ELN, Colombia's second-largest leftist rebel 
army. The ELN bombed the pipeline 40 or 50 times a year, enough to extort 
protection money, known as vacunas, or vaccinations, out of oil contractors 
and other businesses.

The rebels also took over local governments and siphoned off millions of 
dollars in oil royalties that by law must be paid by Occidental to local 
municipal and state entities.

"The ELN maximized its racketeering operation," explained one Occidental 
official in Colombia. "What they did is go after the big resources and 
that's the royalities."

The ELN's dominance ended in 1997, when Colombia's largest leftist 
insurgency, the 18,000 member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or 
FARC, began battling for control of the pipeline.

The struggle peaked last year when the FARC bombed the pipeline 170 times 
and shut it down for more than 200 days - thus denying the ELN the revenue 
to fund its army.

The bombings also hurt the bottom line of Occidental, which gets about 6.5 
percent of its total world production from the Cano Limon field. The 
frequent shutdowns last year cost the Colombia government an estimated $500 
million in lost revenue, or roughly 2 percent of its budget.

"Occidental did lose money as a result of the pipeline being down but those 
losses were dwarfed by the losses of the Colombian government," said Larry 
Meriage, an Occidental spokesman in Los Angeles.

While Occidental and Ecopetrol have provided helicopters, food and other 
logistical support to the Colombian military, top company executives met 
last year with then-Colombian President Andres Pastrana and Patterson, the 
U.S. ambassador, to persuade them to bolster pipeline protection.

Meriage said it was U.S. Embassy officials who took the lead in the 
pipeline protection effort in Washington, though he acknowledged that the 
decision to send U.S. military advisers to the region will help 
Occidental's oil operation in Colombia.

"Does the company benefit from more security in the area? Absolutely," 
Meriage said.

Earlier this year the Colombian military shifted large numbers of troops to 
protect the pipeline - something that has helped reduce the number of rebel 
attacks to 32 this year.

The success has provided a badly needed boost to the security forces here 
while also sending a strong signal to U.S. officials that Colombia - while 
desperately needing U.S. military assistance - is prepared to do the actual 
fighting against the guerrillas.

"We don't need (U.S.) troops to fight. It's our fight," said Colombian Vice 
President Fernando Santos in an interview. "We know that it is a fight that 
we have to win."

But some human rights workers say the local Colombian army unit responsible 
for pipeline protection, the 18th Brigade, has aided the advance of 
right-wing paramilitary forces, who are battling the two leftist 
insurgencies for control of the region.

Known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, the 
paramilitary squads are suspected of assassinating two local congressmen 
and are believed responsible for 70 percent of 420 political killings this 
year in nearby Arauca city, the department capital.

In two public letters circulated in Arauca city, the department capital, 
the AUC marked more than 100 prominent residents for death and vowed to 
cleanse the region of guerrillas and their supporters.

"We will begin with those persons who are most compromised and whom do not 
have any other alternative but death," one letter said.

Gen. Carlos Lemus, commander of the 18th Brigade, which will be the focus 
of U.S. military efforts, denied links to the AUC and said his forces are 
fighting the two leftist insurgencies and the paramilitaries "with the same 
vigor."

"For our troops there is no difference between the terrorist FARC, the 
terrorist ELN, or the terrorist paramilitaries," he said.

Lemus said he is confident the U.S. military assistance will make a 
difference in the battle to protect the pipeline. But a recent FARC car 
bombing near Saravena illustrated the continuing challenge of fighting an 
enemy that strikes and flees, rarely offering a solid military target.

The blast, aimed at a caravan of trucks owned by the state oil company, 
killed one oil worker and injured another. The Colombian military quickly 
scrambled a single helicopter to strafe the guerrilla bombers.

But they had no helicopters or vehicles to ferry troops to the battlefield. 
Instead, dozens of Colombian soldiers loaded down with rifles, grenade 
launchers and other equipment trudged down an empty highway six miles on foot.

After a brief battle, the two dozen guerrillas escaped into the surrounding 
foothills, leaving only residents who were picking through body parts, 
empty shell casings, and the charred remains of the vehicle.

"We can't respond quickly," said the commander of the local battalion. "The 
guerrillas take off their uniforms, grab a hoe, and you don't know who is who.

"The U.S. has a lot of experience in war. They can help us," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Beth