The battalions would be patterned after a 950-member counter-narcotics battalion now being trained in Colombia by US Army "green berets" to help roll back rebel control of Colombia's drug producing regions.

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
Monday, 23 August 1999
 

US, Colombia discuss funding for two more anti-drugs battalions

By Jim Mannion

WASHINGTON -- The United States and Colombia are negotiating US funding for two more US-trained army battalions specialized in anti-narcotics operations, a Pentagon official said Monday.

The negotiations mark another step in Washington's deepening military involvement in Colombia as concern grows here over the threat posed by leftist guerrillas who control vast swaths of coca-growing territory in the South American country.

"There are negotiations talking about funding two more counter-narcotics battalions," a defense official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The battalions would be patterned after a 950-member counter-narcotics battalion now being trained in Colombia by US Army "green berets" to help roll back rebel control of Colombia's drug producing regions.

Non-lethal gear, including communications equipment and night vision devices as well as boots and clothing, is being supplied to the unit by the US military, officials said.

Proposed by President Andres Pastrana, the counter-narcotics battalion is manned by some 900 Colombian soldiers whose human rights records have been vetted, according to the defense official.
 

The United States has agreed to provide 18 UH-1N Huey helicopters to make the battalion air mobile, a defense official said.

The first company completed training on June 25, and two more companies will have completed their training by December, according to the Pentagon. The battalion will be a stand-alone unit with medical, mortar, reconnaissance platoons, and an intelligence component.

US military assistance to the Colombian army was cut off for most of the decade because of its human rights record. Instead, Washington has channeled security assistance to the National Police.

But rebel gains on the battlefield have underscored the army's weakness and the growing strength of two leftist guerrilla forces --the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN)-- from protecting the drug trade in the areas they control.

The Clinton administration resumed military aid to the Colombian army last year and in March broadened the scope of intelligence-sharing to give the army more timely information on rebel movements in drug zones.

Defense officials cautioned that the counter-drug battalion should not be seen as a quick fix against the FARC, a force with 15,000 rebels, but rather as part of an overall strategy aimed at strengthening the government's controls over the skies and the rivers that flow through the coca growing regions.
 

The Pentagon plans to spend 7.3 million dollars to provide patrol boats, bases and equipment to interdict shipments of precursor chemicals entering the Caqueta and Putumayo provinces by river, officials aid.

The Pentagon is funding upgrades of Colombian military aircraft, including night vision goggles and forward looking infrared systems in the cockpits that will allow nighttime air patrols.

Responding to a Washington Post report that the administration is prepared to greatly step up military and economic aid to Colombia, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said no decision has been made yet to seek congressional approval for additional aid.

But he said President Bill Clinton would look at the need for increased US aid, noting a consensus within the administration and the Congress that "Colombia faces real challenges in their counter-drug efforts and the peace process that's ongoing there."

The Post reported that Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering and White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey told Pastrana in separate visits this month that the United States is prepared to step up military and economic assistance if Bogota comes up with a comprehensive strategy to strengthen the military, halt an economic free-fall, and fight drug trafficking.

But they also warned Pastrana that he could lose American support if he makes further concessions to the rebels, the report said.

Colombian Foreign Minister Guillermo Fernandez roundly denied the report.

"It's not true that Washington came to us and demanded new strategies or issued ultimatums. Nor is it true that the US government threatened to pull its support if we made more concessions to the FARC," Fernandez said.

"On the contrary, the US government has repeated its willingness to work with us on our policy," he said.

And in Washington, State Department spokesman, James Foley, said: "The idea that we're going to try to micro-manage the Colombian government's counterinsurgency strategy is wrong."

"We are in a dialogue with them, but those are decisions for the government of Colombia to make," he said.

"Colombia is a disaster, and I don't see any way around that," McCaffrey told the Post. "We are in a period of intense debate in the administration and on the Hill ... but we don't have the latitude to let a fellow democracy go under."