U.S. pours in combat experts to train drug-busting squads of Colombia

The Independent (London)
22 October 1999
By David Smith
This Month's News | CSN Home | SAS Involvement in Colombia

TOLEMAIDA MARINE BASE, Colombia -- THE GREEN beret in charge of training the Colombian commando unit is absolute about what his students can do.

"They have the stomach for this war," said the United States Army Special Forces captain in designer sunglasses as he ordered his men into position, ready to storm a supposed drug traffickers' hide-out in the valley below. "My question is: will we in the United States and you folks in Europe give them the wherewithal to fight it?"

Two hours south of Bogota, less than an hour away from the territory where left-wing guerrillas now control a sizeable swath of Colombia (and the lucrative coca fields), this is the cutting edge of the world's war against drugs. Hundreds of US soldiers have been shipped in. Their mission? To make the Colombian army a fighting force; to hurt the guerrillas and the drug lords; to enable the Colombian government to go to the peace table with some muscle.

"You know in the States we always have been given that 'no-lose' mentality," said the captain of the new Colombian anti-narcotics battalion as his men opened fire on that mock target in the jungle. "That's what these soldiers have to have. We want them to be itching to go to war - and to advance with maximum violence, that's the US warrior's code."

What is happening now in Colombia represents the largest US commitment in Latin America for a generation. It is not just the hundreds of green beret trainers sent south this year. Nor the uniforms, rifles, or radios. There is now an aid package that could reach $ 2bn (pounds 1.2bn) over the next two years if Congress has its way.

"We need helicopters, maybe 300 of them, we need transporters, we need long -range howitzers," Colombian Colonel Carlos Suarez said. "By the sounds of it, we are going to receive much of what we need."

After years of carefully walking the fine line between Colombia's drug war and its civil conflict, the Americans have opted to cross it. President Andres Pastrana insists that "the US is fighting the narcos, not the guerrillas", but reality dictates that the hardware, know-how and expertise will be used against the rebel groups who have carved this country up.

At times, it is difficult to believe how flimsy the government's hold has become. Walk out of a fashionable hotel in the heart of Bogota and you may well see a 20-strong unit of soldiers at the front door. Venture to the outskirts of the city, to the refugee shanty towns of Uzme or Soacha, and you will hear people talk of guerrillas coming in at night to recruit or extort.

But it is in cosmopolitan Cali, home to many Fortune 500 companies, and the infamous Cali drug cartel, that the country's collapse hits you. In May, left -wing guerrillas walked into a Catholic church in suburban Cali, held guns to the heads of the congregation, then kidnapped them all - 186 men, women and children plus the priest and his altar boys.

"It was like the Nazis and the Jews," said Maria Teresa Ochoa, who was released in June. "We were force-marched into the mountains, wives separated from husbands, mothers from children, and told we would die unless they got what they wanted." The guerrillas sought concessions from the government, then ransom for their hostages: dozens are still being held, Mrs Ochoa's husband among them.

President Pastrana is remarkably bullish. "Plan A is peace, plan B is war," he told us as he prepared to leave for Europe, the latest stage on his fund -raising tour. "I've been to the jungle, I've met with the guerrilla leaders, there is a peace process, however fragile ... now I've been to Washington, too, and, obviously, we need to conduct war as well."

However, the Clinton administration is openly siding with an army that has a disgraceful record on human rights. Mr Pastrana was honest enough to admit: "We have big problems on that count."

In the sprawling mountain camps outside Bogota, where some of the two million war refugees live, you hear of the brutality of right-wing paramilitaries linked to the army and government. "They came into our village, took six people out, tied them up, then slit their throats," said one newly arrived mother. "They gave us two hours to choose - get out or die." Such atrocities raise the question of whether the US is embarked on a slow walk into full-blown military engagement.

No one should underestimate the speed with which the Americans want to move. "We should have one battalion ready by December, two more by next April," said the green beret captain. "Advance with maximum violence, that's the key," he added.