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Old 05-17-2004, 17:34   #46
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Part III

Mass Arrests

Complementing its attack against the FARC in the countryside, Colombia also hit the ELN in the cities with the help of U.S. intelligence.

According to Colombian sources, a U.S. intelligence officer set up a
listening post inside the 18th Brigade's headquarters.

The U.S. began sharing cellular phone and radio frequencies with the military and the special prosecutor's office to pinpoint rebels and their collaborators.

"One of the reasons for success has been their intelligence," said Gen. Carlos Lemus, head of the 18th Brigade and the man responsible for pipeline security. "This is also part of the American aid we are receiving."

Besides helping the army fight rebel units, intelligence from wiretaps and radio interceptions became important in gathering evidence for the prosecutor to order a series of arrests.

The first were in October 2002, followed by more in November, and the next April and August. Another round, in October 2003, came just three days before municipal elections. More than 200 people were charged with being linked to the guerrillas. At least 40 were freed for lack of evidence. A few were convicted. Most remain in jail pending trial.

Local politicians and human rights activists said the detentions, including those of union leaders, human rights workers, journalists, elected officials and political candidates, were politically motivated.

One detainee was Jose Murillo, the leader of the area's best-known human rights group. Another was a priest, Father Jose Helmer Muñoz, the leading candidate for governor and a frequent critic of the government's hard-line policies. A third man, Antonio Jose Ortega, won election as Saravena's mayor despite being in jail.

Few in the province deny meeting with the guerrillas, but they insist that they did nothing wrong. With no state presence, the guerrillas were the law.

Despite the heavy military presence, right-wing paramilitaries, illegal private armies dedicated to wiping out the guerrillas, have moved into the area. Left-wing critics of the authorities have been killed. Arauca now has one of the highest homicide rates in Colombia, which has one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

"We have to coexist in the middle of four different groups, the ELN, the FARC, the paramilitaries and now the government," said Arianis Barrera, whose husband was arrested while he was running for mayor. "It is totally traumatic."

But Juan Hernando Poveda, the tough-talking prosecutor, said the arrests were justified. He showed The Times seized documents that included correspondence in which a former governor sent guerrilla leaders a detailed list of the oil royalty payments he had sent them. Another document had the former governor addressing a guerrilla leader by his first name: "Dear Pablo," the communication began.

"The ELN has infiltrated everything - politics, economics and social
spheres," Poveda said. "But we find them. Rats lie down with rats."

Satisfaction

Whether the operation was a success remains unclear.

Pipeline attacks are down - but they began declining before the U.S. effort started with the arrival of the Special Forces trainers. After a high of 170 attacks in 2001, the pipeline was hit 36 times in 2002 and 34 times in 2003. So far this year, there have been just five attacks - one of the lowest numbers in the pipeline's history.

Instead, rebels began blowing up the electrical towers that provide the power for Oxy's pumps. But those attacks also have dropped off this year.

"We have taken important steps, steps never before taken," Lemus said. "But there's still a lot left to do."

On a helicopter ride between Arauca and Saravena, a U.S. Special Forces crew flew over the main Occidental compound, only a few yards from Colombia's border with Venezuela.

Huge clouds of steam rose from the plant, appearing as low, massive thunderheads looming over glinting rivers and green prairie.

The Special Forces company commander said he had no problem putting his life at risk to protect the oil pipeline.

"The Colombian government and its infrastructure is very important for the stability of the state, which ultimately is important to the stability of the U.S.," he said, shouting over the thump of the blades overhead.

"Whatever the infrastructure - oil or whatever - if it supports the
government here, it adds stability to a region that is important for the United States."

Times special correspondent Ruth Morris in Colombia and researcher Mark Madden in Washington contributed to this report.
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De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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Old 05-17-2004, 20:59   #47
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Interesting article, TR. Thanks.
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Old 05-20-2004, 22:40   #48
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Miss Colombia
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Old 05-21-2004, 07:11   #49
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Wink

Quote:
Originally posted by Roguish Lawyer
Miss Colombia
Not bad RL but on any given weekday during lunch hour, you could see dozen or more mujeres of this caliber walking on the Septima near the National Museum in Bogota.

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Old 05-21-2004, 07:39   #50
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Re: Part III

Quote:
Originally posted by The Reaper
Mass Arrests
"The Colombian government and its infrastructure is very important for the stability of the state, which ultimately is important to the stability of the U.S.," he said, shouting over the thump of the blades overhead.

"Whatever the infrastructure - oil or whatever - if it supports the
government here, it adds stability to a region that is important for the United States."

Good post TR!

VERY FEW folks here in the U.S. truly understand this concept and at some point we may have to pay a significant price for our neglect. The 7th SFG does wonderful and important work, but we are fooling ourselves if we think this military contribution and a few economic pacts will foster any long term political stability. The politicians in D.C. have to get very serious and address some of Latin America's major political/economic/social issues in a substantive and collaborative manner with Latin American govts. This also means IMO that we need to work with both Chavez of Venezuela and especially Lula of Brazil. The Darien Gap or the Rio Grande will not be able to hold back the massess if things get really ugly.
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Old 05-22-2004, 08:59   #51
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We helped set up the 18th. I know General Lemus. Good man.
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Old 10-18-2004, 16:23   #52
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Congress just approved a doubling of US troops on Colombia (to 800), and increased funds for an additional 200 civilian contractors.

Maybe they can find Keith Stansell, Thomas Howes, and Marc Gonsalves (contractors kidnapped February 13 2003)
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Old 11-11-2004, 15:38   #53
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Army Winning

Well, this won't do at all. Its going to get boring quick.
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Old 11-12-2004, 08:08   #54
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NousDefionsDoc
Army Winning

Well, this won't do at all. Its going to get boring quick.
If the Army wins, do you think the rebels will relocate?
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Old 11-12-2004, 18:46   #55
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A lot of them already have - along the border regions with Ecuador and Venezula.
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Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimal food or water, in austere conditions, training day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon and he made his web gear. He doesn't worry about what workout to do - his ruck weighs what it weighs, his runs end when the enemy stops chasing him. This True Believer is not concerned about 'how hard it is;' he knows either he wins or dies. He doesn't go home at 17:00, he is home.
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Old 11-13-2004, 22:57   #56
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HR NGOs should be held accountable for these deaths for forcing investigations and trials.

Suspected Rebels Kill Colombian Official

Sat Nov 13, 9:01 PM ET World - AP Latin America



BOGOTA, Colombia - Suspected Marxist rebels gunned down a state attorney in southern Colombia who had been prosecuting captured guerrilla commanders, police said Saturday.



Mario Canal, 43, was traveling in a taxi along a highway Friday near the city of Popayan, 230 miles south of Bogota, when a group of gunmen stopped the car and shot him six times, said regional police chief Col. Pablo Gomez. The assailants later vanished into nearby mountains.


Canal had been investigating alleged crimes committed by captured leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the country's main leftist rebel group known by its Spanish acronym FARC.


Preliminary evidence indicated that a FARC militia was behind the attack, Gomez said. Authorities were also looking into why Canal was driving without an escort down a highway known to be teeming with rebels.


The FARC and a smaller rebel group, called the ELN, have been battling to topple the government and establish a Marxist-style state in Colombia for 40 years.
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Old 11-16-2004, 21:42   #57
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9 COLPOL KIA
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Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimal food or water, in austere conditions, training day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon and he made his web gear. He doesn't worry about what workout to do - his ruck weighs what it weighs, his runs end when the enemy stops chasing him. This True Believer is not concerned about 'how hard it is;' he knows either he wins or dies. He doesn't go home at 17:00, he is home.
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Old 11-19-2004, 07:56   #58
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Lunch at El Caribe

Hey NDD,

Looks like the CIC will be stopping in for lunch. IIRC the last CIC to visit Colombia was the current CIC's dad. Also according to this article, it seems like the folks over at the Latin American section of the DOS may have some work to do in the next 4 years---will see; albeit I wouldn't hold my breath.

BTW: I not only had lunch but stayed at the El Caribe in Cartegena. Very nice place, the dinning room in the open air courtyard of the hotel had a minature zoo which was quite impressive; if you ignored all the animal droppings. The only problem we had at the hotlel was when we checked in and the staff realized that we were 4 gringos. After a few confused looks, our rooms were changed to the gringo section of the hotel. See I booked the hotel from in-country and the staff at the hotel assumed that we were going to be natives---wrong. During that visit, I was there during La Reina week-----OH MY GOD, is all I can say. Funny little story; during our stay there, one of my buddies lost his glass eye in the pool, no kidding. He opened his eyes while under water and the glass one slipped out of it's socket. He surfaces and says to one of my buds; hey is my eye still in it's socket. Immediately we launched a SAR mission dubbed, "Eye Recovery." That little operation consisted of a couple of gringo's scouring a pool yelling at the tops of our lungs: "que usted visto mi amigo's ojo---que usted visto mi amigo's ojo." LOL... The mission was a success when eventually it was found after securing a dive mask from the pool boy.


http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1119/p02s01-usfp.html
USA > Foreign Policy
from the November 19, 2004 edition

A push for cooperation - on American terms

With a packed agenda of international trips, Bush sets out to mend fences and address Latin American concerns.

By Howard LaFranchi | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON – That President Bush intends to make diplomatic bridge- building a priority of his second term can be seen in his heavy travel schedule over the coming weeks.
But it won't be bridge-building at the expense of what the president perceives as US interests. With critical elections on the horizon in Iraq, the next two months will be about cultivating as much international good will and cooperation as possible - without compromising Mr. Bush's core beliefs.

Friday the president flies to Santiago, Chile, for a three-day trip that includes a summit with Asian and Pacific leaders, a large number of bilateral meetings, a state visit to Chile, and a stop for lunch in Colombia Monday. Secretary of State Colin Powell will travel from Santiago to the Middle East to meet with Israelis and Palestinians to try to take advantage of the window opened by Yasser Arafat's death.

Later this month the president goes to Canada, before a postinauguration trip to Europe for a NATO summit and a visit to Britain. Other European stops might still be added.

The Chile state visit is particularly instructive. Like many of the countries Bush will visit or whose leaders he will meet, Chile opposed the war in Iraq and failed to support the US position in the United Nations Security Council in 2003. But since then both sides have made an effort to overcome that split.

The US has approved a free-trade agreement with Chile, while Chile answered a US request to send peace-keeping troops to troubled Haiti. It also shuffled its diplomatic team at the UN to include an ambassador who is a friend of National Security Adviser and Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice.

That kind of mutual accommodation may serve as an example as Bush approaches the more onerous task of repairing relations with estranged European partners, including Germany, Spain, and France. Still, no one expects Bush, convinced of a mandate to forge ahead even in ways that are unpopular abroad, to pull in America's sails.

"The president would like to mend as many fences as possible, but not at just any cost," says David Lampton, an Asia and foreign-policy expert at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. "I don't see any inclination to change the underlying policies that are giving rise to the disquiet."

An example is North Korea's nuclear-arms program. White House officials discussing Bush's trip to the Asian-Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) say the US will stick to demands for resumption of the six-party talks that have involved the US, China, Japan, Russia, and North and South Korea. In a briefing this week the officials played down growing signs of dissatisfaction with the pace and limited scope of those talks, especially from China and South Korea, saying, "We don't see the split."

Mr. Lampton says he sees no indication that the US will now show "any more flexibility with North Korea than we have in the past" - even though that is what some of the six-party partners are looking for. And he says that what is seen as US rigidity is causing problems for some governments in nations where US policies are not popular.

"Governments in our allied countries are facing populations that are not very supportive" of US policies generally or specifically in regard to North Korea, says Lampton, who just returned from a visit to South Korea. "Governments are only going to get out so far ahead of their own populations."

The South America component of Bush's trip will allow the president to refocus on a region that he had said early in his first term would be a priority, but which fell off the White House radar after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

By making a stop in Cartagena, Colombia, for lunch with President Alvaro Uribe, Bush is recognizing the efforts of a leader who successfully recast in terms of terrorism - a word bound to get the attention of the Bush administration - the stiff challenge his country faces internally from Latin America's last significant guerrilla groups.

Noting how Mr. Uribe has focused on the connection between "drugs and terrorism," one White House official says the Colombian leader "has linked the two, [and it's] a message we hope will resonate through the region."

Still, Latin America watchers are unsure that a second Bush administration intent on addressing the Middle East will pay significantly more attention to the south.

"In addition to the president's visit, we've had [Defense] Secretary [Donald] Rumsfeld in Ecuador for a regional defense ministers' meeting, and Powell and [Homeland Security Secretary Tom] Ridge in Mexico right before that, so that does suggest some diplomatic current towards Latin America," says Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington.

But the real test of whether the US truly plans to fortify relations with Latin America will take place over coming months as key issues are addressed, including:

• The Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). It's already signed, but Congress must ratify it. "If it does pass, it may only be by a half-dozen votes," says Mr. Hakim. "Bush would have to spend some of the political capital he's talked about if he wants this."

• Plan Colombia. Will the administration press to continue pouring money into Colombia to fight the drugs-guerrilla nexus? Bush's stop in Colombia would suggest so.

• Andean Free Trade Agreement. The Bush administration this year initiated discussions with Colombia on a free-trade agreement to include Peru and Ecuador.

• Haiti. The hemisphere's poorest country continues to be wracked by political turmoil and violence that show no signs of abating on their own, but the US has tended to get involved reluctantly and only at moments of deep crisis.

• Regional migration. While Mexico remains the major focus for the US on immigration, Central America and the Andean countries are also important contributors to the northward flow of migrants.

"How this agenda is addressed will tell us if these latest forays are just a diplomatic flurry," says Hakim, "or if we really are going to see more attention to the region."
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Old 11-19-2004, 08:38   #59
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Yeah, the maid told me he was coming about a wekk ago. She's from up there.
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Old 11-22-2004, 18:42   #60
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http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americ...ush/index.html

Bush hails Colombia's efforts against drug trade
Says he wants 'Plan Colombia' aid package renewed
Monday, November 22, 2004 Posted: 6:03 PM EST (2303 GMT)

CARTAGENA, Colombia (CNN) -- President Bush heaped praise Monday on Colombia's government for battling drug gangs and corruption and said he will ask Congress to renew a U.S. aid package next year.

Bush equated Colombia's battle against the cocaine trade with the United States' struggle against terrorism, and said Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has made progress in fighting the kidnappings, killings and drug trafficking that have wracked Colombia for decades.

"My nation will continue to help Colombia prevail in this vital struggle," he said.

Asked whether he would seek the same level of aid currently provided under "Plan Colombia," the package President Clinton pushed through Congress in 2000, Bush said he will work with lawmakers "to achieve a level that will make the plan effective."

Under Plan Colombia, the United States gives Colombia training, equipment and intelligence to root out drug traffickers and destroy coca crops. The $3.3 billion, five-year package expires next year, The Associated Press reported.

Uribe took office in 2002 and launched a crackdown on the country's drug cartels and Marxist guerrillas who taxed the drug trade to fund their decades-old revolt.

"There have been significant results," Bush said. "The number of acres under [drug] cultivation are down significantly. The number of arrests are up. The number of murders is down.

"In other words, this man's plan is working, and there is a focused strategy."

Bush made the brief stop in Colombia on his way back to Washington after attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Chile. That visit was marred by a scuffle between Secret Service agents and Chilean security guards and the cancellation of a state dinner for Bush after the United States insisted on security measures the Chileans called unacceptable. (Full story)

Bush dismissed a question about the incident Monday, saying the small dinner held instead was "fabulous."

"I appreciated the hospitality of our Chilean friends, just like I appreciate the hospitality of our Colombian friends," he said.

Bush also said Monday in Colombia that he hoped Iran's assurance that it has frozen its uranium enrichment work is true, but that "there needs to be some verification."
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