WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #578, FEBRUARY 25, 2001
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012
(212) 674-9499 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*3. COLOMBIA: NEW PROTESTS AGAINST PEACE ZONE
Representatives of the Colombian government reached an agreement
on Feb. 21 with protesters who oppose the demilitarization of a
northern "safe" zone for peace talks with the leftist rebel
National Liberation Army (ELN) [see Update #576]. The accord put
an end to four days of highway roadblocks, organized by a group
called "No al Despeje," which the government claims is controlled
by rightwing paramilitary groups. Paramilitary chief Carlos
Castano, leader of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia
(AUC), denied being behind the protests, but said he supported
them, and implied that AUC paid to transport campesinos to the
protests. [Hoy (NY) 2/21/01 from AP, 2/22/01; Tiempo (Bogota)
2/23/01]
The army-backed paramilitaries have threatened to kill community
leader Omar Vera Luna and his family because of his refusal to
participate in the protests against the demilitarized zone. Vera
Luna is president of the Communal Action Board, which works with
residents in the Villarelys district of Barrancabermeja,
Santander department. About an hour away by boat, Barrancabermeja
is the closest major city to the northern zone slated for
demilitarization, and has become the scene of intensified
paramilitary violence in recent months. Vera Luna's name appeared
on a paramilitary death list circulated in the area on Feb. 16.
On Feb. 17, he was detained at a paramilitary roadblock, and was
released only after human rights activists and international
church representatives appealed to police to take action. On Feb.
18, paramilitaries came to Vera Luna's home in Barrancabermeja on
at least three occasions; international observers were present
and no one was harmed. [AI Urgent Action 2/20/01]
In other news, Colombian president Andres Pastrana Arango is set
to arrive in the US on Feb. 25 for an official visit, including a
meeting with US president George W. Bush on Feb. 27. [New York
Times 2/24/01]
*4. COLOMBIA: WAR BEING OUTSOURCED
According to media reports which have been confirmed by the
Colombian government, an armed helicopter team that included
several US civilians--working for the Virginia-based DynCorp Inc.
under contract with the US State Department--came under fire by
Colombian leftist rebels on Feb. 18 as it carried out a search
and rescue mission, referred to in military lingo as a SAR. The
heavily armed SAR team successfully evacuated the crew of a Huey
II Colombian police helicopter which had been shot down by the
rebels. Two more helicopters, also piloted by US contract
workers, fired on rebel positions while the rescue took place.
Police said the SAR team included four US citizens and two
Colombians, all armed with M-16 assault rifles, and that the
team's rescue specialists had been on the ground for about 10
minutes--long enough to remove machine guns and radios from the
downed chopper, which had been hit by rebel gunfire while taking
part in an operation to spray toxic herbicides on fields near the
town of Curillo, in Caqueta department. That operation had
involved two crop-dusters and six helicopters: four Huey II
gunships, a command craft and the SAR team's Bell 212. Most of
the aircraft used on counter-drug missions are owned by the State
Department's Air Wing and are on loan to the Colombian police.
An estimated 30 US civilians work with Colombian security forces
as consultants, crop-duster pilots, mechanics and on SAR teams.
They are not covered by orders to avoid combat, unlike the
estimated 200 US military trainers currently in Colombia, who
have been barred by the Pentagon from entering combat areas or
joining police or military operations that could result in
clashes with guerrillas or paramilitaries.
Launched on Dec. 12, the military offensive known as Plan
Colombia initially ran into little ground fire because it focused
on the southern state of Putumayo, now dominated by rightwing
paramilitary squads friendly to the government, according to the
Miami Herald. But the offensive encountered armed resistance when
it moved on Feb. 2 to the neighboring state of Caqueta,
controlled by the country's largest leftist rebel force, the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). On the first day
of spraying in Caqueta, an OV-10 "Bronco" crop-duster took 11
bullet hits in its tail but returned to base.
On Feb. 19, a Soviet-made M-17 "flying crane" helicopter picked
up the downed police helicopter, but rebel fire hit two other
Hueys flying cover on the operation, wounding a police lieutenant
and forcing the two aircraft to land in Curillo. The M-17 picked
them up later the same day and flew them to a nearby army base.
The next day, Feb. 20, a police UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter took
a bullet through its fuel tank during an operation in northern
Bolivar department, but returned safely to base, police said.
SAR teams are largely composed of former U.S. special forces and
normally stay in Colombian military or police compounds, working
for several weeks and then taking 15 days off. They are under
orders from DynCorp and US officials to avoid journalists. A
spokeswoman for DynCorp in Reston, Va., said the firm's contract
with the State Department's International Narcotics and Law
Enforcement Bureau forbids it from making statements to the
media. Three DynCorp pilots have died in recent years, all in
crashes blamed on pilot error [see Updates #363, 444, 447; note
that two of the pilots were previously said to be working for
another Virginia company called East, Inc., and that Dyncorp was
said to be based in Texas.]. A DynCorp paramedic identified as
Michael Demons died in Colombia last October, apparently of a
heart attack suffered at an army base. [Miami Herald 2/22/01]
DynCorp has been contracted since 1997 by the State Department to
provide pilots, trainers and maintenance workers for the aerial
coca eradication program. One pilot said they were paid $90,000 a
year tax free. "This is what we call outsourcing a war," one
congressional aide in Washington, who asked not to be named, told
the Scottish newspaper The Scotsman.
Another company, hired by the US Defense Department on a $6
million a year contract, is Military Professional Resources Inc
(MPRI), a Virginia-based military-consultant company run by
retired US generals. Its 14-man team, holed up in a ritzy hotel
in Bogota, refused to speak to reporters from The Scotsman.
[Scotsman 2/23/01] The team of retired US military officers
allegedly advises the Colombian military on strategic and
logistical issues. [MH 2/22/01]
Meanwhile, a Canadian company, Vector Aerospace of St. John's,
Newfoundland, announced in January that it had signed a $6.5
million contract with Colombia to overhaul engine components and
supply parts for military helicopters. Canadian export
regulations prevent the sale of military goods and technology to
governments with persistent human rights violations, unless it
can be demonstrated that there is no reasonable risk the goods
will be used against the civilian population. [Ottawa Citizen
2/21/01]
*5. COLOMBIA: US MERCERNARIES IN PERU
In a Feb. 19 article published in Narconews.com, reporter Peter
Gorman revealed that teams of retired US Navy SEALs have been
arriving over the past several weeks in the Peruvian jungle city
of Iquitos, the Peruvian city closest to southern Colombia which
has an international airport. [Navy SEALs are an elite US Special
Forces unit.] The retired SEAL teams are ostensibly being brought
in to operate new high-tech US gunboats, which have arrived over
the past two months as part of the US-backed Peruvian "Riverine"
program, based out of Iquitos. The boats, as large as 38-feet
with 4 guns, are equipped with cutting edge marine electronics,
from radar to listening devices, and armed with anti-aircraft
guns along with mounted machine guns.
Under the Riverine program, the US provides boats and training to
Peruvian military forces to help them intercept coca base as it
is transported through the Peruvian Amazon to the Colombian river
port of Leticia. The Riverine program has been in place for
several years, but during the past few weeks the high-tech boats
have begun to be moved from the Amazon river in Peru to the
Putumayo river, which marks the border between Colombia and Peru.
The former SEALs will now reportedly have the job of patrolling
the Putumayo river and killing any suspected rebels who try to
retreat onto Peruvian soil. Members of US Special Forces teams
working out of Iquitos confirm that the men are mercenaries hired
to kill Colombian leftist rebels; they are said to have been
chosen for the secret operation because of their SEAL backgrounds
and the quality of their work in Southeast Asia, the Middle East,
Central America and Africa.
The mercenaries are openly claiming to have been hired by a
company named Virginia Electronics; they say they earn their
money per kill, and that since they are retired, they are not
bound by military codes. A web search doesn't show the existence
of a militarily-connected company called Virginia Electronics,
although there is a "Virginia Electronics Expo" website which
brags of cutting edge marine-electronics technology, is sponsored
by military defense contractors and claims to be approved by the
Department of Defense. An employee at the US Embassy in Lima--who
refused to give a name--responded to a reporter's questions by
denying that "we would ever be involved in the use of
mercenaries," and that "it's unimaginable that former Navy SEALs
would ever be mercenaries." [Narconews.com 2/19/01]
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Weekly News Update on the Americas * Nicaragua Solidarity Network of NY
339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012 * 212-674-9499 fax: 212-674-9139
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