-Caveat Lector- -------- Original Message -------- Subject: US Ready to Escalate Colombian War; 1 Million Cubans Protest Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 23:12:16 -0600 (CST) From: Michael Eisenscher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Organization: ? To: undisclosed-recipients:; January 19, 2001 US General: Colombia Civilians Safe By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 2:57 a.m. ET BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- With the United States on the verge of sending helicopter gunships into Colombia's war, a top U.S. military commander expressed faith that Colombian troops would not harm civilians with the lethal hardware. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chief of the U.S. Southern Command, also said at a press conference Thursday evening that U.S. policy toward Colombia was unlikely to change radically after President-elect Bush takes office on Saturday. ``Obviously the new administration will do its own assessment, but we'll meet our obligations to your government,'' Pace told mostly Colombian journalists at the Defense Ministry. He noted that Washington's $1.3 billion aid package for Colombia received bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress. Under the package, two U.S.-trained army battalions are poised to launch operations in Colombia's southern cocaine-producing region, and U.S. special forces troops will soon begin training a third battalion here. Addressing concerns that the aid will lead to more civilian casualties, Pace said Gen. Mario Montoya, who will command operations involving the U.S.-supplied helicopters and U.S.-trained troops, is ``responsible'' and will use intelligence data to carefully plan missions. But with civilians suffering the most casualties in Colombia's war, Pace's confidence was met by unease. The helicopters, which United States will begin delivering to Colombia this month, will be armed with weapons that can spew out as many as 50 bullets per second. U.S.-trained army battalions flying aboard the helicopters will try to seize coca fields and laboratories from leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitary gunmen -- who earn millions of dollars by ``taxing'' the narcotics industry -- so unarmed planes can spray the coca with herbicide. Much of the coca, the main ingredient of cocaine, is produced by peasant farmers. Gen. Fernando Tapias, the commander of Colombia's armed forces, said farmers and their families would not be caught in the cross fire. ``The army ground troops have the task of protecting the people on the ground, not just to prevent (rebels and paramilitaries) from shooting at the helicopters,'' Tapias said at the joint news conference. But Colombia's armed forces have a spotty record on human rights and discipline. Last August, troops opened fire on schoolchildren walking in the hills to a picnic, mistaking them for rebels. Six children died. Some military officers have also been charged with collaborating with paramilitary death squads. U.S. officials say the aid is necessary to curb drug production and help Colombia's military hit back at guerrillas who profit from the cocaine trade. Pace said the first Huey helicopters would arrive later this month. More sophisticated Black Hawk helicopters will arrive during the second half of 2001, he said. Copyright 2001 The Associated Press ============================== Friday January 19 12:31 PM ET Castro Leads 1 Million Cubans in Anti-U.S. March Reuters Photo By Andrew Cawthorne HAVANA (Reuters) - A stern-faced President Fidel Castro (news - web sites) led more than one million Cubans in a march on Friday on the U.S. diplomatic mission to protest immigration policies blamed for the deaths of two young airline stowaways. Combining white tennis-shoes with his olive-green military uniform, and flanked by student leaders, Castro waved a Cuban flag, chanted ``Down With the Murderous Law!'' and glared at the imposing U.S. building as he led the marchers past. Havana blames the 1966 U.S. Cuban Adjustment Act, which offers preferential treatment for Cubans seeking residency in the United States, for stimulating illegal immigration like the dramatic recent case of two military cadets. Alberto Vazquez, 17, and Maikel Fonseca, 16, broke into Havana airport on Christmas Eve and hid in the undercarriage of a London-bound British Airways Boeing 777 just before takeoff. Presumably dying in mid-air from oxygen shortage and freezing temperatures, their bodies were later discovered in Britain, one in a Surrey field after falling out of the aircraft, and the other at London's Gatwick airport. ``These two brothers died because of this murderous law,'' said a young military cadet at the front of Friday's march. With the discovery of a note left behind saying they dreamed of living in the United States, the two are being presented by Cuba as naive victims of the ``siren calls'' from its politically estranged northern neighbor. In what was Cuba's first mass protest of the year, the marchers filed past the U.S. Interests Section on Havana's sea- front Malecon boulevard for three hours in disciplined fashion, chanting slogans, and waving flags and placards. Friday's march came as Cuba began the New Year in an even more militant mood than usual -- warning incoming U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) that he would become the 10th American leader to serve his term without toppling Cuba's government; strongly criticizing some foreign media in Havana; and jailing a former Czech finance minister who met with dissidents. Both Castro Brothers In March Reuters Photo The massive mobilization by Cuba's ruling Communist Party virtually paralyzed Havana, with many protesters bussed in from schools and workplaces in outlying areas of the capital. After the march ended, state TV said more than 1 million people -- half the population of Havana -- had taken part, a figure eyewitnesses generally agreed with. As well as Fidel Castro, other senior leaders like his brother and armed forces' head Raul Castro, and National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon took part in the march. ``We are not going to allow any law, any blockade from the United States, do away with our revolution,'' said another military cadet, referring to the U.S. economic embargo. Such marches were a familiar sight in Cuba throughout last year, particularly during the colossal custody dispute over young shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez, whose case was another example of the Caribbean island's immigration problem. The march was part of what Castro calls an ongoing ``Battle of Ideas'' -- an attempt to demonstrate to the world the logic and justice of Cuba's socialist system, and to expose the ``lies and hypocrisy'' of U.S.-led ``imperialist capitalism.'' On the immigration issue, which has been one of the Cuban government's main concerns for the last year, U.S. officials retort that Castro's own authoritarian system and economic shortcomings are to blame for driving people to desperation. Most of the immigration tragedies take place in the Florida Strait, where thousands of Cubans have died in recent decades -- - often in horrific circumstances in shark-infested, stormy seas -- trying to leave. ``They (the United States) use immigration like a political magic wand,'' wrote columnist Luis Sexto in state daily Juventud Rebelde (Rebel Youth). ``With it, they fabricate an image that the country is being emptied and divided, and at the same time they steal a doctor from his patient, an engineer from his project or an artist from the soul of the nation.'' Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! Inc., and Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. ___________________________________ FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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