22 April 2004
U.S. Says Colombia at "Decisive Point" in Fight Against Narcoterrorism
Southcom, Pentagon officials discuss U.S. support for Colombia
By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Colombia is at a "decisive point" in its fight against anti-government terrorists who finance their operations through the sale of illicit narcotics, says Benjamin Mixon, director of operations for the U.S. Southern Command (Southcom).
In prepared congressional testimony April 21, Mixon said the United States is seeing "steady progress" toward establishing security and stability in Colombia, and the Bush administration is "confident" that Colombia's government under President Alvaro Uribe will continue in that positive direction.
But Mixon warned the House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources that such progress in Colombia is "reversible." Consequently, he said, the United States must maintain its "steady, patient support in order to reinforce the successes we have seen and to guarantee a tangible return on the significant investment" the United States has made in Colombia.
Mixon outlined the activities of Plan Colombia, a six-year program designed to defeat the threat Colombians face from narcoterrorists. Mixon said with Plan Colombia now in its fourth year, Colombia is expanding the size of its armed forces, working with neighboring countries for combined operations against narcotraffickers, building forests where coca (used for making cocaine) once grew, and creating military units comprised of campesinos (farmers and farm workers) to help guard towns where the government's presence was formerly lacking.
Mixon said that while it is still "too early to predict the exact end-state" of Plan Colombia, the "progress we are seeing is a positive development that promises to complete that plan and institutionalize its successes."
Inextricably entwined with the military training that Southcom provides Colombia is the "institutionalization" of human rights and respect for the rule of law by Colombia's armed forces, Mixon said. In that regard, he said, Southcom continues to support Colombian efforts to extend human rights training throughout the ranks of Colombia's military.
Colombia is fighting illegal armed groups "justly, in accordance with democratic values and human rights," said Mixon, adding that "this is instrumental in what we are collectively striving to achieve" in Colombia.
Mixon said that none of the Colombian units that U.S. forces trained have been accused of human rights abuses. He said he was confident that Uribe and the Colombian military "have taken human rights to heart, unlike their adversaries who commit the vast majority of human rights abuses" in the country. Alleged human rights abuses by Colombian security forces are now less than two percent of all the cases reported in the country, Mixon noted.
Colombia's Uribe faces "enormous challenges," Mixon said, but he added that the Colombian leader is using his mandate of "unparalleled approval ratings of over 75 percent" to put "deeds behind his words." The United States, Mixon said, needs to be "steadfast" in its support of Uribe "to set the conditions for his longer-term success."
"While our attention is drawn to another region of the world," Mixon said, referring to Iraq, "we must keep in mind that we live in this hemisphere, and its continued progress as a region of democracy and prosperity is paramount to our national security."
Also testifying before the subcommittee was U.S. Department of Defense official Thomas O'Connell, who said in his prepared statement that the United States plans increased funding in fiscal years 2004 and 2005 to support the Colombian military's capability to fight anti-government forces in the country.
O'Connell, the Pentagon's assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, said that current U.S. legislation "purports" to limit the U.S. presence in Colombia to 400 military personnel and 400 contractors. To date, he said, the effect of this limit has been small. But O'Connell said that in the coming year, as the Colombian military will be conducting full-scale operations across the country, the personnel cap will begin to have a "deleterious effect" on fighting the Colombian government's opponents.
He said that while U.S. personnel will not be directly on the "front lines" in Colombia, "more training and planning assistance will be required for the Colombian military," since it "will be directly engaged on a broader front to defeat the narcoterrorists" in the country.
O'Connell said the United States should support this effort with U.S. personnel "that reflects the current and future situation on the ground" in Colombia. Because of that situation, he said, the Bush administration believes the United States will need to have up to 800 military personnel and 600 contractors in Colombia during 2005.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2004&m=April&x=20040422163917AEneerG0.6686823&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html
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