COLOMBIA REPORT
Information Network of the Americas
PO Box 20314
New York, NY 10009
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web: http://www.colombiareport.org
- Monday, 26 February 2001 -

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ARE THEY CIVILIANS OR MERCENARIES?
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by Garry M. Leech and Eric Fichtl
http://www.colombiareport.org/colombia52.html

Last week, Washington repeatedly portrayed the U.S. crew flying a mission
in a State Department helicopter that was fired at by Colombian rebels as
'civilians.' These 'civilians' were dispatched to rescue the Colombian
police crew of a U.S.-built Huey II helicopter gunned down by the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the southern department of
Caquet. The misleading statements by the U.S. government give the
impression that the U.S. 'civilians' were the victims of an unwarranted
attack by Marxist guerrilla forces. But what the government and much of the
media failed to mention was that these U.S. 'civilians' are in actuality
mercenaries contracted by Washington to perform military duties in conflict
zones.

Washington hawks learned from the Vietnam experience that when U.S. troops
begin dying in combat, U.S. public opinion goes sour quickly. In the
Central American conflicts of the 1980s, Washington modified its
intervention strategy from the Vietnam model of placing U.S. troops
directly in the line of fire to a policy of funding, arming and training
military (El Salvador and Guatemala) and paramilitary (Nicaraguan Contras)
allies.

While maintaining the Vietnam and Central America strategy of deploying
military advisors in non-combat zones, in Colombia the U.S. government has
increasingly contracted out frontline duties to 'civilians.' But these
'civilians' are in fact military veterans, many with Vietnam combat
experience, who work for private U.S. corporations such as Military
Professional Resources, DynCorp and Virginia Electronics. These companies
have to be licensed by the U.S. State Department, assuring that only those
that adhere to Washington's foreign policy agenda receive government
accreditation.

Military Professional Resources, which was formed in 1987 by retired U.S.
Army General Vernon Lewis, was contracted by the Clinton Administration in
1999 to send military advisors to work with the Colombian Army. In December
1999, former U.S. ambassador to Colombia, Myles Frechette, told the St.
Petersburg Times, "It's very handy to have an outfit not part of the U.S.
armed forces. Obviously, if somebody gets killed or whatever, you can say
it's not a member of the armed forces. Nobody wants to see American
military men killed."

This new strategy's success is illustrated by the fact that at least three
DynCorp 'civilians' have been killed in the line of duty in Colombia with
little or no press coverage in the United States. DynCorp, which was formed
after World War II at the behest of President Truman to provide jobs for
ex-combatants and to make use of leftover war materiel, has some 50
ex-military pilots and mechanics working in Colombia under a contract with
the U.S. State Department (see,
http://www.colombiareport.org/colombia19.html, U.S. Mercenaries in
Colombia).

DynCorp pilots and crew, accompanied by Colombian military personnel,
routinely fly sorties over guerrilla-controlled territory, with the State
Department stipulation that Colombians must man the guns. Also, DynCorp
mechanics and technicians charged with maintaining high-tech U.S. weaponry
are an essential cog in the Colombian war machine and consequently have
become a prime target of the FARC.

It was DynCorp pilots who were flying the State Department helicopter sent
to rescue the downed Colombian air crew in the FARC-controlled territory of
southern Colombia. This incident received some attention in the mainstream
media, but nowhere near the coverage it would have received had official
U.S. military forces been attacked by Colombian guerrillas. The
government's emphasis on the word 'civilian' blurs the public's perception
of the actual extent of Washington's military involvement in Colombia. The
use of U.S. taxpayer dollars to hire ex-military personnel to perform
combat-related duties for the U.S. Government is, in effect, the same as
sending in U.S. troops. However, Washington's use of the mercenary strategy
allows it to wage war in Colombia without being held accountable by the
U.S. Congress and the people.

On February 19, Narco News reported that teams of retired U.S. Navy SEALS
had been contracted to operate high-tech gunboats on the Putumayo River in
southern Colombia (http://www.narconews.com/iquitos1.html). They work with
the Colombian Military as part of the Riverine Program that intercepts drug
traffickers and often fights FARC guerrillas. Like the DynCorp pilots, they
work for a U.S. company, Virginia Electronics, contracted by the U.S.
government to perform military duties with the armed forces of Colombia.
The U.S. government calls them 'civilians,' but according to Webster's
dictionary they should be called mercenaries: one who serves merely for
wages, or a soldier serving in a foreign army.

The U.S. government uses taxpayer dollars to covertly hire mercenaries
because it knows the U.S. Congress and the public will not support the
deployment of U.S. troops in combat zones in Colombia. However, the end
result is the same: U.S. tax dollars funding direct U.S. military
involvement. Washington knows that contracting civilians willing to risk
their lives to work in Colombia will not attract the same sort of media
attention and public outcry as U.S. soldiers being shipped home in body
bags.

Eric Fichtl is the production manager at NACLA Report on the Americas. He
is also a member of the Information Network of the Americas (INOTA)
editorial board.

Copyright 2000. Colombia Report is a publication of the Information Network
of the Americas (INOTA), a non-profit organization. All rights reserved.

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