A-Infos (en) U.S. Force Training Troops in Colombia

[Tom Burghardt <tburghardt@igc.apc.org>]

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             U.S. FORCE TRAINING TROOPS IN COLOMBIA
               EXERCISES INVOLVE ANTI-DRUG EFFORTS
_________________________________________________________________
 
     THE WASHINGTON POST
     Monday, May 25, 1998; Page A01
     By Dana Priest and Douglas Farah
     Washington Post Staff Writers
     http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/1998-05/25/
   
     U.S. Special Forces troops have been conducting extensive
training exercises with Colombian soldiers fighting drug
traffickers and guerrillas under a program that avoids
restrictions imposed on military aid by the Clinton
administration in response to Colombia's abysmal human rights
record and drug-related corruption.
   
     The training, involving hundreds of U.S. troops each year,
has allowed the U.S. military to play a much more direct and
autonomous role in Colombia than officials have publicly
acknowledged. Small teams of elite American troops have
instructed Colombians in light infantry tactics and intelligence
gathering for anti-drug operations, and have conducted eight-week
counterterrorism courses, usually in remote jungle bases where
guerrillas and drug traffickers are most active.
   
     The program is authorized under a 1991 law that permits U.S.
Special Forces, America's premier irregular fighters, to train on
foreign soil if the training is designed primarily to benefit the
U.S. troops. While not secret, the training is sensitive enough
that few in Congress are aware of it and the exercises have been
suspended this month as Colombia holds presidential elections.
   
     The law authorizing the Special Forces exercises does not
require U.S. troops to abide by a State Department policy in
which military aid is restricted to Colombian units that have
been cleared of any involvement in human rights abuses. Colombian
troops trained by the Special Forces are not similarly vetted.
   
     It was under the same program, known as JCET for Joint
Combined Exchange Training, that U.S. troops conducted 41
training exercises with Indonesia in the past seven years even
though many members of Congress believed they had curtailed
military ties with that country because of human rights abuses.
Defense Secretary William S. Cohen suspended the Indonesia
program two weeks ago because of turmoil in the country.
   
     "We consider JCET an important program because it allows us
to train in different areas of the world and to learn how other
militaries operate," Pentagon spokesman Kenneth H. Bacon said.
"It also allows us to learn important skills," such as hostage-
rescue training. "We did this under the terms of the law. It was
totally legal and reported to Congress."
   
     The training program has quietly proceeded in Colombia as a
civil war there has intensified and Washington debates how to
oppose drug trafficking from the world's top cocaine producer,
where all centers of power -- the military, the government and
the guerrillas -- have been tainted by the drug trade. While the
United States is reluctant to get involved in counterinsurgency
operations, the line between the narco-traffickers and the
guerrillas has blurred.
   
     Senior administration officials said an across-the-board
assessment of Colombian policy is underway, involving the State
Department, Defense Department and intelligence agencies, because
of a consensus that Colombia, the hemisphere's second-oldest
democracy, is facing an escalating threat to its stability.
   
     In recent months, the two Marxist guerrilla movements have
inflicted heavy losses on government troops and now control about
50 percent of the country. A recent Defense Intelligence Agency
report estimated that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC) has 15,000 troops and the National Liberation Army (ELN)
has 5,000 troops, a substantial increase from a year earlier.
   
     U.S. Special Forces officers involved in the training
program in Colombia say it plays an essential role in maintaining
good relations with a longstanding U.S. ally. They also say U.S.
troops learn to operate in jungle and mountain terrain not found
in the United States and train for emergency evacuations of U.S.
personnel and for fighting terrorism.
   
     But the uneasy, broader U.S. relationship with Colombian
authorities was highlighted this month when the United States
revoked the visa of Gen. Ivan Ramirez, the inspector general of
the armed forces, over his alleged ties to several army massacres
of civilians. Two years ago the United States barred contacts
with Gen. Hernando Camilo Zuniga, then commander of the armed
forces, because of suspected ties to drug traffickers.
   
     Under heavy U.S. pressure, President Ernesto Samper Tuesday
disbanded the 20th Intelligence Brigade because of evidence the
unit was responsible for a series of murders of civilian
politicians and human rights activists.
   
     The Special Forces training program has survived the
vicissitudes of U.S.-Colombian relations, including President
Clinton's "decertification" of the country for its poor anti-
narcotics efforts in 1996 and 1997, which triggered a ban on
military equipment transfers and all U.S. military training
except by the Special Forces.
   
     "During decertification," said one officer involved in the
Colombia program, "Special Forces has been able to maintain the
patience, perseverance and presence to maintain a very good
relationship with the military."
   
     The program is also exempt from a State Department policy
that allows U.S. military aid to be given only to Colombian army
units whose members have been vetted by the U.S. Embassy for
possible human rights violators. The policy, agreed to by both
nations in August, also limits those units to using U.S. military
aid in a specifically defined area in the southern half of the
country known as "the box."
   
     Defense Department officials said the Special Forces program
was exempted from these restrictions because of difficulty in
finding troops with which to train. They pointed out that all
training missions are approved by the U.S. ambassador to Colombia
as well as the defense secretary.
   
     "We're dealing with combat units, and you can't tell the
host nation who they can have in a given unit," said a senior
defense official.
   
     Some members of Congress and human rights organizations
expressed concern that the program is a way to circumvent
restrictions on military assistance to Colombia.
   
     Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said that while it is illegal
to train or equip foreign security forces who violate human
rights, "from Colombia to Indonesia, our Special Forces have
trained foreign troops without regard for who they are or whether
they turn around and torture and shoot pro-democracy students."
   
     Gen. Manuel Jose Bonett, commander of Colombia's armed
forces, declined to discuss the U.S. training but said he
welcomes any and all help. "You have to understand we're fighting
this war on behalf of the United States. We're fighting for you,"
he said. "Given the limitations our military has, instead of
criticizing us, you should see us as heroes."
   
     The flexibility of the JCET program -- as well as its low
profile -- is illustrated by the conflicting ways that the
military tracks training exercises authorized by Section 2011 of
the U.S. Code, the law that applies to Special Forces training
abroad.
   
     According to Defense Department documents, U.S. troops were
involved in 10 training exercises in fiscal year 1996 involving
114 U.S. troops and 651 Colombian troops. But according to the
Special Operations Command of the Southern Command, there were 28
Special Forces deployments in 1996. The Defense Department
documents said only three JCET exercises took place in fiscal
1997 involving 143 troops, while the Special Operations Command
lists 29 involving 319 U.S. troops authorized under Section 2011.
   
     About 24 deployments involving 274 U.S. troops are planned
for fiscal year 1998, according to the Special Operations
Command. Most of the U.S. troops come from the 7th Special
Operations Group based at Fort Bragg, N.C., or from the Navy
SEALS.
   
     In February, according to members of the 7th Group at the
Army's Special Forces Command, 20 U.S. Special Forces troops
trained 56 Colombians at a base 50 miles south of Bogota. They
requested that the name of the base not be disclosed because of
concern about the safety of U.S. soldiers, whom the guerrillas
have said they would target.
   
     On any given day there are about 200 U.S. military personnel
in Colombia, according to the U.S. Southern Command. Nearly 60 of
them are stationed at three radar sites around the country to
help monitor suspected drug flights.
   
     U.S. military aid to Colombia is expected to total about $37
million in fiscal 1998. Most of the money is to be used for spare
parts, communications equipment, ammunition and maintenance for
helicopters and boats, U.S. officials said.
 
     Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
 
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