Defense Minister Jorge Alberto Uribe Echavarría claimed the weapons would be “for essentially defensive use” to “combat drug trafficking, terrorism, and arms smuggling.” However, former Venezuelan defense minister Gen. Fernando Ochoa Antich said the purchase would give the government in Bogotá the military edge along the border.

This is happening at a time when the U.S. government is stepping up its efforts to overthrow the government of President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. (See article on front page.)

Ochoa Antich noted that the military balance between the neighboring countries has shifted in favor of the Colombian army with the escalation in military aid from Washington, which includes helicopters and planes.

The official Colombian army is not the only source of tensions on the border. The Colombian daily El Tiempo reported that near the end of last December seven Venezuelan soldiers were killed by right-wing Colombian paramilitary forces who had crossed into the neighboring country.

Successive Colombian governments have been locked in a four-decades-long war with guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and a smaller group known as the National Liberation Army (ELN). Washington’s intervention in this war and in the broader region has been increasing under the banner of Plan Colombia. Under the guise of fighting “narco-terrorism,” some $2.5 billion in U.S. aid, most of it military, has gone to the Colombian government over the past four years.

In July 2002 the U.S. Congress broadened the scope of its aid to allow the official use of U.S.-provided helicopters in a “counter-drug brigade” created under Plan Colombia to fight against the FARC and ELN. The plan allows for as many as 800 U.S. military personnel to train the Colombian army.

Last year the Pentagon dispatched 150 troops to Colombia, and U.S. “military contractors” have been engaged directly in the civil war. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters January 6 that 1,500 U.S. troops are in Central and South America.  
 
Offensive against guerrilla forces
At the beginning of the year Bogotá stepped up military actions against the guerrilla forces. Dubbed Operation New Year, the military campaign began on January 4 with an assault on the village of San Isidro using U.S.-made Black Hawk helicopters and Brazilian armored personnel carriers. Brig. Gen. Guillermo Quiñones, commander of the 12th Brigade carrying out the operation, said his plan is based on U.S. counterinsurgency doctrine. Quiñones’s background includes artillery training at Fort Sill in Oklahoma and a stint at the U.S. Southern Command.

In January the government also announced the capture of Ricardo Palmera, a member of the FARC’s negotiating team in 1998, when the government turned over to it a 16,000-acre enclave in southern Colombia.

Palmera entered a plea of not guilty to charges of murder and kidnapping, and guilty to rebellion, through a two-way link from his maximum-security jail north of Bogotá to the courthouse in Valledupar, 430 miles away. The authorities claimed that to allow him to attend his own trial in person would pose too much of a risk.Despite their claims of success in their recent probes, ground commanders prefer to carry out operations with substantial air support. A January 25 Washington Post report said that advancing government troops face crude guerrilla defenses and roads lined with mines, replaced each night after army engineers spend hours meticulously clearing them.

Under cover of the campaign against the guerrilla groups, the Colombian government has deepened attacks on peasants, workers, and trade unions. On March 10 the UN High Commissioner on Refugees described the human rights situation in the country as “critical,” reported AP. The UN representative charged Bogotá with arbitrary roundups and the promulgation of “antiterror laws that give sweeping powers to the military.” The UN report expressed particular concern over the increase in news of “torture and mistreatment by government forces.”

On February 10 the general secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) in Brussels condemned the attacks on Colombian trade unions. He cited a February 6 incident in which explosives were planted at the entrance of a municipal workers union hall for the second time in two weeks, and the gunning down of Ricardo Barragán, a member of the same union, on February 17.

The ICFTU statement pointed out that since 1990 more than 3,000 trade unionists have been killed in Colombia, with many of those responsible for their deaths having gone unpunished.

The Colombian armed forces have also carried out actions against factions of right-wing paramilitary groups that have not agreed to enter peace negotiations. The army claimed to have killed 22 members of the United Self-Defense Forces (AUC) in fighting 200 miles southeast of the capital. Government troops fought fierce battles with AUC forces in February for control of the oil-rich Casanare region. One month later the army said it had killed eight of its members and captured another 17.

In July last year the AUC’s main force, consisting of some 11,000 of its 18,000 troops, signed a cease fire with the government and also agreed to demobilize by the end of 2005. Only 800 soldiers belonging to the paramilitary group turned in their weapons in a government-sponsored ceremony last November. The ceremony included a videotaped message from AUC leader Carlos Castaño, who reaffirmed that the groups would “not demobilize to give up space” to the FARC.

The government has offered an amnesty that would enable those who have committed atrocities against civilians to avoid punishment by paying “restitution” to their victims.

Right-wing armed groups formed with the direct involvement of sections of the country’s wealthiest rulers have been active in Colombia for the best part of half a century, targeting leaders of workers’ and peasants’ struggles. In recent years they have operated in tandem with government forces against the FARC and ELN, often receiving logistical support from the Colombian military.

The AUC also serves as an extralegal instrument to defend and add to the holdings of Colombia’s largest landowners by clearing entire populations from areas it controls, often gaining de facto rights or forcing the farmers to cede legal title to the land. According to a Jan. 7, 2002, BBC report, some 3.5 million hectares of agricultural land has been obtained by the AUC’s financial backers.

During a visit to Colombia at the end of February, U.S. Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, applauded the government’s effort to crush the FARC and ELN. He also charged that the guerrilla groups might launch a new offensive in face government actions “getting stronger and stronger in the war against terrorism.” At a March 4 ceremony attend by 400 soldiers and civilians at the U.S. Southern Command, Colombian president Alvaro Uribe thanked Washington for its support in fighting the FARC and ELN and “drug traffickers.” During his visit Uribe—accompanied by the Colombian defense minister and U.S. ambassador—also met with U.S. Southern Command head Gen. James T. Hill. The U.S. ambassador to Colombia, William Wood, was also present.

The next day Bogotá announced that with Washington’s help it was reviving its “Search Bloc,” a special police unit ostensibly set up to combat drug cartels. It will consist of an “anti-narcotic command unit (with helicopter support), an intelligence group, and a group of detectives,” said Police Col. Oscar Naranjo. Intelligence support would be provided by Washington, Naranjo said.  
 
 
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