Grinder
12 August 2003, 15:01
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
BOGOTA, Colombia, Aug. 11, 2003 - Joint Chiefs Chairman Air Force Gen.
Richard B. Myers began a three-day visit to South and Central American
Aug. 11 by highlighting the successes leaders here have achieved in the
war on terrorism.
While in Colombia the chairman will meet with Colombian President
Alvaro Uribe, who celebrated a year in office Aug. 7. Uribe has
aggressively sought to re-establish the government in rebel-held areas
and has pursued three narcoterrorist factions.
The chairman will also meet with Defense Minister Martha Lucia Ramerez
and Gen. Jorge Mora, the Colombian Chief of Defense.
The relationship between the United States and Colombia has changed. In
the past, U.S. efforts were directed exclusively at the threat posed by
drug traffickers.
But the rebels groups - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the United Self-defense
Groups of Colombia (AUC) - use tactics indistinguishable from
terrorists. Officials estimate the FARC - the largest rebel group - has
roughly 15,000 hard-core adherents with another 5,000 "sleeper cells."
Officials estimate the ELN has about 5,000 supporters and the AUC has
about 10,000. All of the groups are allied with drug traffickers and
sell drugs to buy weapons and finance their operations. The United
States has expanded the help it provides to Colombia to take on the
terrorist groups.
"You can't cure just half a cancer" was the way one senior military
official put it in describing the change to U.S. policy. "The expansion
from counternarcotics to counterterrorism is exactly the right thing to
do," said a senior military official. The official said the Colombian
military is very capable and that the people want free and democratic
rule.
With U.S. training - provided by some 400 Army Special Forces and
contract personnel - the military will become even more capable, the
official said.
The chairman will discuss how the programs are going in the country and
listen to Colombian officials as they detail their experiences and
needs in the war on terrorism.
For his part, the chairman will share with Colombian leaders some of
the U.S. "lessons learned" from actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. He
will specifically speak about the effectiveness of joint operations,
the necessity of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and ways
to "operationalize" intelligence.
The FARC, ELN and AUC are all listed on the State Department's
terrorist organization list. For decades, the organizations have cowed
the populace into cooperating with them.
In one recent incident, FARC members paid an 8-year-old boy 25 pesos to
ride a bicycle up to a police station. The bicycle was packed with
explosives and when the boy arrived at the station, operatives using
remote control detonated the bomb. They killed the boy, a pregnant
woman and some police, and wounded many others.
The groups also target the infrastructure needed to run the country.
>From January to May 2002, for example, the groups launched 406 attacks
against oil pipelines, electric towers, communications towers and
bridges.
The Colombian government is fighting back. The government has opened
police stations, army bases and placed services in areas that the
rebels controlled before. Officials are working to ensure the judicial
system gets back on track. Rebels had targeted judges for assassination
an in one instance killed 12 justices during an attack on Colombia's
Supreme Court.
The Colombian military is also protecting local mayors and town council
who too often were rebel targets in the past. "There are places in
Colombia that are seeing the government for the first time in 30
years," said a Defense official.
The military is fighting back and now the FARC, which used to work in
battalion-sized units with impunity, is now forced to fight in company-
sized or smaller units, officials said.
>From January to May 2003, attacks on infrastructure targets dropped to
191: a reduction of 53 percent from 2002.
Counterterrorism units are making headway. According to U.S. Southern
Command, the Colombian military captured 5,784 rebels from August 2002
to May 2003, compared to 2,790 during a similar period beginning August
2001. The Colombian government killed or wounded 1,548 rebels in 2003
and seized almost 4,500 weapons.
U.S. Southern Command officials said the number of rebel deserters has
"skyrocketed," with 1,375 since Uribe took office in August 2002.
While the program is part of the global war on terrorism, it does not
ignore the drug aspect. In 2002, the most recent year for statistics,
Colombian authorities arrested 33,340 traffickers. They also seized 94
metric tons of cocaine and 23 metric tons of coca base.
The chairman will discuss regional aspects of the war on terror.
Officials said he will discuss allegations that some of the rebel
groups are finding refuge in neighboring Venezuela.
American Forces Press Service
BOGOTA, Colombia, Aug. 11, 2003 - Joint Chiefs Chairman Air Force Gen.
Richard B. Myers began a three-day visit to South and Central American
Aug. 11 by highlighting the successes leaders here have achieved in the
war on terrorism.
While in Colombia the chairman will meet with Colombian President
Alvaro Uribe, who celebrated a year in office Aug. 7. Uribe has
aggressively sought to re-establish the government in rebel-held areas
and has pursued three narcoterrorist factions.
The chairman will also meet with Defense Minister Martha Lucia Ramerez
and Gen. Jorge Mora, the Colombian Chief of Defense.
The relationship between the United States and Colombia has changed. In
the past, U.S. efforts were directed exclusively at the threat posed by
drug traffickers.
But the rebels groups - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the United Self-defense
Groups of Colombia (AUC) - use tactics indistinguishable from
terrorists. Officials estimate the FARC - the largest rebel group - has
roughly 15,000 hard-core adherents with another 5,000 "sleeper cells."
Officials estimate the ELN has about 5,000 supporters and the AUC has
about 10,000. All of the groups are allied with drug traffickers and
sell drugs to buy weapons and finance their operations. The United
States has expanded the help it provides to Colombia to take on the
terrorist groups.
"You can't cure just half a cancer" was the way one senior military
official put it in describing the change to U.S. policy. "The expansion
from counternarcotics to counterterrorism is exactly the right thing to
do," said a senior military official. The official said the Colombian
military is very capable and that the people want free and democratic
rule.
With U.S. training - provided by some 400 Army Special Forces and
contract personnel - the military will become even more capable, the
official said.
The chairman will discuss how the programs are going in the country and
listen to Colombian officials as they detail their experiences and
needs in the war on terrorism.
For his part, the chairman will share with Colombian leaders some of
the U.S. "lessons learned" from actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. He
will specifically speak about the effectiveness of joint operations,
the necessity of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and ways
to "operationalize" intelligence.
The FARC, ELN and AUC are all listed on the State Department's
terrorist organization list. For decades, the organizations have cowed
the populace into cooperating with them.
In one recent incident, FARC members paid an 8-year-old boy 25 pesos to
ride a bicycle up to a police station. The bicycle was packed with
explosives and when the boy arrived at the station, operatives using
remote control detonated the bomb. They killed the boy, a pregnant
woman and some police, and wounded many others.
The groups also target the infrastructure needed to run the country.
>From January to May 2002, for example, the groups launched 406 attacks
against oil pipelines, electric towers, communications towers and
bridges.
The Colombian government is fighting back. The government has opened
police stations, army bases and placed services in areas that the
rebels controlled before. Officials are working to ensure the judicial
system gets back on track. Rebels had targeted judges for assassination
an in one instance killed 12 justices during an attack on Colombia's
Supreme Court.
The Colombian military is also protecting local mayors and town council
who too often were rebel targets in the past. "There are places in
Colombia that are seeing the government for the first time in 30
years," said a Defense official.
The military is fighting back and now the FARC, which used to work in
battalion-sized units with impunity, is now forced to fight in company-
sized or smaller units, officials said.
>From January to May 2003, attacks on infrastructure targets dropped to
191: a reduction of 53 percent from 2002.
Counterterrorism units are making headway. According to U.S. Southern
Command, the Colombian military captured 5,784 rebels from August 2002
to May 2003, compared to 2,790 during a similar period beginning August
2001. The Colombian government killed or wounded 1,548 rebels in 2003
and seized almost 4,500 weapons.
U.S. Southern Command officials said the number of rebel deserters has
"skyrocketed," with 1,375 since Uribe took office in August 2002.
While the program is part of the global war on terrorism, it does not
ignore the drug aspect. In 2002, the most recent year for statistics,
Colombian authorities arrested 33,340 traffickers. They also seized 94
metric tons of cocaine and 23 metric tons of coca base.
The chairman will discuss regional aspects of the war on terror.
Officials said he will discuss allegations that some of the rebel
groups are finding refuge in neighboring Venezuela.