COLOMBIA: U.S. ARMY OFFICER TOURS COCAINE LAB CONFISCATED BY COLOMBIA'S ARMED FORCES.

Record ID: 230536

  • Title: COLOMBIA: U.S. ARMY OFFICER TOURS COCAINE LAB CONFISCATED BY COLOMBIA'S ARMED FORCES.
  • Date: 20th February 2001
  • Summary: GUAINIA, COLOMBIA (FEBRUARY 19, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV/SV: VARIOUS OF HELICOPTERS LANDING (2 SHOTS) 0.11 2. GV: VARIOUS OF COLOMBIAN SOLDIERS IN AREA (3 SHOTS) 0.27 3. GV/CU: GIRL HOLDING FLAG (2 SHOTS) 0.35 4. GV: VARIOUS OF RESIDENTS OF AREA (2 SHOTS) 0.41 5. GV/SV/PAN: VARIOUS OF MARINE GENERAL PETER PACE OF U.S. SOUTHERN COMMAND ARRIVING (4 SHOTS) 1.08 6. GV: PEOPLE WALKING CARRYING COLOMBIAN FLAG 1.13 7. MV: PACE AND OTHER U.S. AND COLOMBIAN OFFICERS SPEAKING 1.17 8. GV/MV/CU: VARIOUS OF SUSPECTED DRUG TRAFFICKERS CAPTURED (4 SHOTS) 1.33 9. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) COMMANDER OF COLOMBIAN ARMED FORCES, FERNANDO TAPIAS: "We had information on of an agreement between Brazilian and Colombian drug traffickers and, with this operation, we have proven it. We have verified the involvement of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) in drug trafficking activities with these Brazilian drug traffickers and, without this being the main objective, we have struck an indirect blow against the financial infrastructure of the FARC." 2.12 10. GV/PAN: 2.18SOLDIER WALKING THROUGH COCA FIELD 11. GV/PAN: U.S. SOLDIERS OBSERVING DRUG PROCESSING LABORATORIES (2 SHOTS) 2.34 12. LV/PAN: HELICOPTER FLYING OVERHEAD 2.40 13. MV/GV: VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS IN COCA FIELDS (2 SHOTS) 2.49 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 7th March 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: GUAINIA, COLOMBIA
  • Country: Colombia
  • Reuters ID: LVA87PYFV00CXSVH0TJ7MZXO6VSQ
  • Story Text: Stepping into guerrilla-infested jungles, a top U.S.

    army officer walked on Monday through waist-high coca fields
    and toured a cocaine laboratory confiscated by Colombia's
    armed forces from the country's largest rebel force.



    Marine General Peter Pace of the Miami-based U.S.

    Southern Command paid a one-day visit to Colombia -- the
    world's No. 1 cocaine producer -- to observe anti-drug efforts
    by the Colombian army.

    As part of President Andres Pastrana's "Plan Colombia,"
    the United States is investing
    $1 billion in mostly military aid to help destroy hundreds of
    thousands of acres (hectares) of coca fields fuelling the
    South American nation's 37-year old war.

    Although Pace's trip to the jungle encampment of
    Barrancominas, in the southeastern Guainia district bordering
    Brazil, was not part of the U.S.-backed offensive, it
    underscored the United States' growing involvement in
    Colombia's drug wars.

    Critics of Washington's aid, which includes the delivery
    of 14 Blackhawks helicopters to deploy Colombian drug
    battalions, say it could end up dragging the United States
    into a war that has killed more than 35,000 civilians in the
    last 10 years.

    Washington has insisted the money is needed to destroy a
    booming drug trade that brings millions of dollars every year
    to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the
    hemisphere's largest and most powerful guerrilla force.

    It has also said no Americans will take part in field
    operations.

    Colombia's war pits rebel groups against the army and
    outlawed right-wing paramilitary squads.

    On Monday (February 19), Pace -- accompanied by Colombia's
    Defence Minister Luis Fernando Ramirez and Armed Forces chief
    General Fernando Tapias -- flew over a key strategic area used
    by FARC guerrillas to smuggle arms for drugs.

    Some 1,000 members of Colombia's army, backed by airplanes
    and helicopters, took part on Sunday (February 18) in
    Operation "Black Cat," which ended with the capture of 12
    cocaine laboratories, a FARC camp with a capacity for up to
    500 fighters and 10,000 hectares of coca fields -- the raw
    material for cocaine.

    Twenty-two drug-traffickers were arrested in Sunday's
    raid, which Colombian narcotics officials described as one of
    the biggest blows against the FARC's war economy in eastern
    Colombia.

    "It has been very clear to me for a long time that there
    are members of the FARC, the ELN and the paramilitaries that
    have links to drug-trafficking," Pace said through a
    translator. He was referring to the country's second-largest
    rebel force, the National Liberation Army (ELN).

    The FARC has blasted the U.S. military aid as "gringo
    imperialism" and has said coca leaf should be removed by hand
    through government-funded crop substitution programmes.

    On February 9, the 17,000-strong FARC ended a tense
    three-month stalemate and returned to two-year-old peace talks
    after Pastrana repeated assurances of a crackdown on the
    paramilitaries, the rebels' bitter enemies.

    Rights monitors accuse the 8,000-strong paramilitaries of
    links to the army and of killing scores of suspected leftist
    collaborators as part of a "dirty war" against rebels.

    (lf/lh)




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