Note: this includes figures on number of US military & civilian operatives in Colombia...
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Apr1998/t04091998_t0409asd.html TRANSCRIPT DoD News Briefing Thursday, April 9, 1998 - 2:40 p.m. (EDT) Mr. Kenneth H. Bacon, ASD (PA) ___________________________________________________________ ______ Mr. Bacon: Good afternoon. Sorry for the late start. [...] Q: Colombia. A: Not the District of. Q: No. Wilhelm said last week that his staff was working on an assessment of the insurgency situation in Colombia. Is there any sort of high level thought being given in the building to a new strategy in terms of assistance to the Colombian government vis-à-vis the insurgency, not the counterdrug stuff? A: Our primary focus in Colombia now, and I believe in the future, will be on counternarcotics. We now have 216 people working in Colombia. There are military, civilians and contractors. Most of them are involved in running three radar stations that police, monitor air traffic into and out of Colombia. A lot of the narco-trafficking takes place by plane. The number of Americans in Colombia has varied between 175 and 275 in the last year or so, depending on what operations we have there. Our work with the Colombian military has been in the counternarcotics area, and we have not been engaged in counterinsurgency training with them. My expectation is that that is likely to continue. Q: Isn't it hard to separate the two sometimes? Because the guerrillas seem to be heavily involved in narcotic activities. A: The guerrillas do seem to be supported to some degree, and sometimes a considerable degree, by their involvement with narco-trafficking or their protection of narco-traffickers. They also derive money from kidnapping and extortion. So they have -- I guess they have multiple income sources. These are sometimes difficult distinctions to draw, but we are trying to focus as best we can on countering the narco-trafficking. Q: There have been some reports that instead of fixing their old Huey helicopters, that there's some plans to really give them a substantial qualitative improvement of more advanced helicopters. A: There has been some talk about their need for Cobra helicopters, for instance. We have not received a request from the Colombian government for Cobra helicopters. If we were to receive such a request we'd have to make a decision on how to respond to it. We'd have to evaluate their need for advanced weapons as well as their ability to maintain them and their ability to fly them. But we haven't gotten a request yet, so we haven't started that type of analysis. [...] Press: Thank you. ################################################## http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Apr1998/t04141998_t0414asd.html TRANSCRIPT DoD News Briefing Tuesday, April 14, 1998 - 1:40 p.m. Mr. Kenneth H. Bacon, ASD (PA) __________________________________________________________ Mr. Bacon: Good afternoon. First I'd like to welcome a delegation from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia including my Macedonian counterpart, Peter Atenosov who is here with Colonel Markovsky, right behind you there, and their translator who is Natasha Kolikevshka, I believe. My Macedonian's a little rusty, but I hope you'll pardon it. With that, I'll take your questions on Task Force Able Sentry in Macedonia or anything else. [...] Q: General Wilhelm from SOUTHCOM has openly criticized the reforms -- the recent reforms of [the] Colombian military. Also the Washington Post quoted a supposed DIA intelligence report Friday, saying that Colombia could be -- the military could be defeated in five years by the guerrillas. How concerned are you of the instability, the situation of instability in Colombia at this point? A: We're concerned. I think General Wilhelm has made it very clear that we're concerned. I can't comment on any reports about intelligence analysis, but we have been looking at, monitoring the situation in Colombia. I think General Wilhelm gave a very full description when he testified before Congress of exactly what his concerns are. He enumerated seven specific concerns, as I recall. Q: Are you concerned about the situation for the region strategically or also for the fight against drugs and how important it would be for the military to be strong in Colombia? A: We are concerned for both reasons, but our primary reason is the worry about the flow of narcotics out of the area. That is the primary reason why we have a military mission of about 200 people in Colombia manning radars and doing other things to try to stop the flow of drugs out of Colombia and out of the region generally. Q: Will you consider ever a more direct participation, like sending peace forces or anything like that at some point to Colombia? A: We are not involved in counterinsurgency operations in Colombia and we don't have any plans to become involved. What we are doing is working with the Colombian military through training programs, the so-called IMET program, for instance, small unit exchanges, educational programs, to try to make the Colombian military more professional. That's a program that's been going on for some time. We're spending I think about... We're also providing some radios and other equipment to help the Colombian military deal with some of the problems that General Wilhelm enumerated. One was communications, for instance. So there's some assistance through equipment and some assistance through training. Q: Is there a concern more to the government, not having the support of the government in Colombia? A: I guess I don't fully understand that question. Q: More like the military might need, a national strategy. There might be a military strategy but not a national strategy that supports that military strategy. Is that a concern that you... A: I'm sure that President Sampere is concerned about the state of the military. One of our major concerns right now is to make sure that the elections take place as scheduled and smoothly. In the past, some of the insurgent groups there, the National Army of Liberation and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, have interfered with the electoral process by killing people or kidnapping people, and otherwise, wreaking havoc. We hope that does not happen, that the elections can proceed in a democratic and orderly fashion. Press: Thank you. ___________________________________________________________ DefenseLINK Home Page DefenseLINK News Home Page