DATE=12/15/1999
TYPE=YEAREND REPORT
TITLE=YEARENDER: COLOMBIA-U-S
NUMBER=5-45002
BYLINE=BILL RODGERS
DATELINE=RIO DE JANEIRO
CONTENT=
VOICED AT=
CONTENT:
INTRO: This was a year in which the United States
became much more actively involved in supporting
Colombia's efforts to combat drugs and the its
guerrilla insurgency. South American Correspondent
Bill Rodgers takes a look at the growing cooperation
between Washington and Bogota.
TEXT: The year opened on an optimistic note as the
Colombian government and rebels of the leftist
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, appeared
closer toward ending their decades-long conflict. The
government of President Andres Pastrana had
demilitarized a huge area in southern Colombia and
allowed FARC forces to move into the zone as part of an
agreement to open peace talks.
But preliminary negotiations for holding talks soon
bogged down over various procedural issues - and little
progress was made for much of the year. Instead, FARC
appeared to use the demilitarized zone to regroup and
resupply its force of 15-thousand fighters - and then
launch attacks against the government. An especially
fierce and widespread offensive in July spurred
Washington to consider boosting U-S assistance to
Colombia.
U-S aid, about 290-million dollars in 1999, has been
used primarily to help Colombia in its anti-narcotics
efforts. But drug production and smuggling -
especially cocaine - has been rising in large part
because the FARC and other armed groups in Colombia
offer protection to the drug cartels in return for a
share in drug-trade profits. This combination of
drugs, guerrilla insurgencies, and violence worries not
only Bogota, but Washington.
U-S drug policy director Barry McCaffrey, who visited
Colombia in July following the guerrilla offensive,
voiced the Clinton Administration's concerns.
/// MCCAFFREY ACT ///
This is a very dangerous situation for Colombian
democracy; the spillover effect is having an
enormous impact on Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela,
Brazil, Peru. It is clearly a source of enormous
violence and corruption directed at Colombian
democratic authorities. Eighty-percent of the
drugs that come into the United States originate
in Colombia or transit through this nation.
/// END ACT ///
To help Colombia, the Clinton Administration is seeking
a two-billion-dollar package during the next three-
years. But this substantial aid increase has raised
alarms among some in Latin America over what they see
as the danger of growing U-S involvement in the
Colombian war.
Colombian analyst Alfonso Rangel Suarez believes the
danger is real.
/// RANGEL SPANISH ACT ///
He says history shows in these matters one always knows
where one begins, but not where one might end up - and
this might be the case in Colombia. Mr. Rangel points
to the lack of progress in the peace process and the
desire by many Colombians for more U-S support as
factors that could draw the United States deeper into
Colombia.
But Colombian leaders - both civilian and military -
vow this will never happen. U-S officials, like drug
czar McCaffrey, also insist U-S support will not lead
to military involvement.
/// MCCAFFREY ACT ///
I do not believe the United States will play any
role, now or in the future, in this internal
struggle - except to provide training, equipment,
intelligence, support, good will, and alternative
economic development.
/// END ACT ///
For now, this remains the U-S policy. There are an
estimated 200 U-S military trainers in Colombia, but
their role is sharply limited - and there appears to be
no desire by the U-S Congress to send more American
advisors.
In the meantime, President Pastrana's government
continues efforts to bring the FARC to the negotiating
table.
// OPT // But even a government proposal for a
Christmas ceasefire has gone unanswered by the
guerrillas, with the exception of a new round of
attacks in mid-December that left dozens of government
soldiers and rebels dead. (SIGNED)
NEB/WFR/RAE
15-Dec-1999 13:10 PM EDT (15-Dec-1999 1810 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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