U.S. to Widen Colombian Involvement

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A top-level Bush administration delegation unveiled plans Tuesday to widen United States involvement in Colombia's civil war, including providing training, weapons and aircraft to Colombian troops to protect a pipeline carrying U.S. oil.

Until now, U.S. military aid to Colombia has been limited mostly to attempts to wipe out cocaine- and heroin-producing crops which finance leftist rebels and their right-wing paramilitary foes.

But with Colombia's 38-year-old conflict killing about 3,500 people every year and stunting the potential of this resource-rich, strategically located country, the officials say Washington needs to do more.

"We are committed to help Colombians create a Colombia that is a peaceful, prosperous, drug-free and terror-free democracy," Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman told a news conference.

The U.S. officials drove through the streets of this Andean capital in bulletproofed vans to meetings with President Andres Pastrana and other top officials.

In a city that has been the scene of recent bomb attacks, the Americans were escorted by a truckload of Colombian troops in full combat gear.

The projected U.S. military involvement in Colombia falls short of the American role in Central America's wars during the 1980s - when the United States trained and equipped Salvadoran counterinsurgency troops and aided Contra rebels who battled Nicaragua's Sandinista government.

But critics of the new U.S. proposal see mission creep in the evolving American aid program here.

Colombian Defense Minister Gustavo Bell applauded the proposals by the delegation, which also included Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Otto Reich and the chief of U.S. military operations in Latin America, Maj. Gen. Gary Speer. (AP) Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman speaks to reporters during a news conference at the...

The plan faces potential opposition in Congress, where some members fear U.S. troops could become involved in combat and reject tighter links to a military with a poor human rights record.

But one of the visiting U.S. officials, in a briefing with foreign correspondents, said the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington might spur U.S. lawmakers to approve President Bush's request.

The plan calls for $98 million to train and equip a Colombian army brigade to protect the Cano-Limon oil pipeline. It carries oil belonging to Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum and other companies from the country's second-biggest oil field, in Colombia's humid eastern plains, to the Caribbean coast.

Rebel bomb attacks on the 480-mile-long pipeline put it out of commission for 266 days last year, crippling crude oil production.

Much of the $98 million would go for aircraft for the troops, the U.S. officials said, although specific plans have not been drawn up yet.

The Bush administration will also argue that the United States needs to assure a reliable flow of oil from Colombia, closer to U.S. shores than the volatile Middle East, U.S. officials said.

Washington is also seeking funding for training more Colombian counternarcotics troops, in addition to the roughly 3,000 who have been undercutting rebel and paramilitary financing by wiping out their cocaine-and-heroin-producing crops.

In Washington on Tuesday, three respected human rights groups charged that Pastrana's government has failed to meet human rights conditions for continued U.S. military aid.

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Washington Office on Latin America accused Colombian government forces of extensive collaboration with an illegal right-wing paramilitary group that has been killing suspected rebel collaborators.

One of the visiting U.S. officials said some of the reports' findings appeared to be outdated, but studied nevertheless. In addition to pipeline protection, the United States is preparing to assist Colombia in combatting kidnapping, Grossman said. Most of the 3,000 abductions each year in Colombia are carried out by rebels for ransom.

Washington also plans to rebuild some of the police stations that have been leveled by rebel attacks, leaving 192 municipalities in Colombia without a permanent police presence, a U.S. official said. Funding for the rebuilding is already available and doesn't need Congress' approval, the official explained.

A few more details:

Feb. 5, 2002, 8:47PM U.S. expands role in aiding Colombia --By JOHN OTIS (Houston Chronicle South America Bureau )

[Full text] BOGOTA, Colombia -- Widening the U.S. role in Colombia's long civil war, senior American officials announced Tuesday that Washington would provide $98 million in aid to help the Colombian military protect a vital oil pipeline from constant guerrilla attacks.

Until now, U.S. aid to the Colombian armed forces has been earmarked only for wiping out cocaine and heroin production, which provides millions of dollars to Colombia's rebels. Critics said Tuesday's disclosure signaled a risky policy shift toward broader support for counterinsurgency missions.

If approved by the U.S. Congress, the $98 million would be used to train and equip a Colombian brigade that would guard the Caño Limon oil pipeline, which was bombed by Marxist-led rebels a record 166 times last year.

"We support this effort to protect the pipeline because it is critical to Colombia's economic success," said Marc Grossman, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, who led a high-level delegation of Bush administration officials here.

A senior administration official who asked not to be named explained that the United States intends to help the Colombian government reassert its authority in the lawless countryside. The administration also hopes the aid would provide some relief for Occidental Petroleum, the Los Angeles-based firm that jointly runs the Caño Limon pipeline with the national oil company Ecopetrol.

Grossman, the No. 3 official in the State Department, led a delegation that included Maj. Gen. Gary Speer, the acting commander of the U.S. Southern Command, and Otto Reich, the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs. The group, which arrived in Bogota on Monday for a three-day visit, discussed the aid plan Tuesday with President Andres Pastrana and other top Colombian officials.

Defense Minister Gustavo Bell, one of the participants in the meeting, said the aid proposal drew wide support.

"What we're talking about is the need to use some resources to protect the infrastructure of the country that is being subjected to terrorist attacks," he said.

As the 38-year war drags on, sabotage continues to be a tactic of the country's two main rebel groups -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and the smaller National Liberation Army, or ELN.

Last year, guerrillas knocked the Caño Limon pipeline out of service for 266 days. The line normally carries 123,000 barrels of oil per day to the Caribbean port of Coveñas, and its shutdown deprived the Colombian government of $40 million a month.

The Colombian army lacks the manpower to string a force all along the 481-mile pipeline, which can be breached in a matter of minutes with just a few pounds of explosives.

Colombia is the 10th-largest supplier of oil to the United States, and since 1986, the Caño Limon pipeline has been bombed more than 900 times.

Occidental has lobbied U.S. officials to intervene. "We have had some conversations with Occidental," the Bush administration official said. "They are obviously interested in this."

The $98 million would come in addition to a larger aid package unveiled by the administration Tuesday to fight drug trafficking and support democracy in five South American countries: Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela.

Bush's $731 million Andean Regional Initiative includes $439 million in military and economic assistance for Colombia, up from $399 million approved last year.

The proposal for guarding the pipeline would involve training and equipping 500 to 1,000 soldiers and providing them with helicopters, said Adam Isacson, an analyst at the Center for International Policy in Washington.

Rather than placing troops along the pipeline, the brigade would use increased air support, surveillance and intelligence to thwart rebel attacks.

The majority of recent U.S. military aid has funded the training of three Colombian counter-narcotics battalions, totaling about 2,300 troops, and the purchase of dozens of high-performance helicopters.

In addition, Isacson said, the U.S. policy shift indirectly contributes to counterinsurgency efforts, because Colombian troops who had been tied down guarding the pipeline would be freed to fight the guerrillas.

In Washington on Tuesday, three human rights groups charged that Pastrana's government has failed to meet minimal human rights conditions required to continue receiving U.S. military aid.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Washington Office on Latin America accused the Colombian military of working hand-in-hand with illegal right-wing paramilitary forces that have massacred suspected rebels and their alleged civilian collaborators. [End]

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