Posted on 02/23/2003 7:08:06 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
BOGOTA - For the first time, Colombian guerrillas Saturday acknowledged seizing three U.S. government contractors after their plane went down in the southern mountains on Feb. 13.
In response to the kidnapping, scores of U.S. troops have poured into the South American nation, bringing the number to record levels and drawing the United States further into Colombia's prolonged civil conflict.
In a communiqué, leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, said they could guarantee the safety of the three men only if the Colombian military stopped running patrols in a southern region considered rebel territory. Complying, however, would mean calling off the massive search for the men whose small Cessna plunged into a mountainous jungle nearly two weeks ago.
President Alvaro Uribe rejected the deal Saturday, and the notion that the government would bow to rebel demands.
''Operations are managed by the [Colombian army] . . . not the FARC,'' Uribe said.
Some U.S. sources familiar with U.S. operations in Colombia privately expressed fears that the men might have been killed already by an elite rebel unit called the Teofilo Forero Brigade, which apparently seized the hostages. One defense industry source said the fears were based on communications overheard by U.S. intelligence indicating that the Forero unit had received permission to carry out ``executions.''
The information, however, could not be confirmed.
AMERICANS TARGETED
Opposed to increasing U.S. involvement in Colombia, the rebels have said Americans are targets in their war against the government. Despite a request from U.S. officials, the FARC gave no proof Saturday that the three Americans were alive.
The rebels killed two others aboard the plane -- a Colombian intelligence sergeant and an American -- as they apparently tried to escape shortly after the crash, 200 miles south of Bogotá, authorities said.
Also Saturday, new obstacles in the search for the men loomed. Search teams operating out of three air bases get supplies -- food and fuel -- brought over land routes frequently interrupted by guerrilla road blocks.
''There's not enough fuel to keep operations running for more than the next three days,'' said a U.S. source who is closely monitoring rescue efforts. He also voiced frustration at what he described as poor coordination between the Colombian and U.S. forces.
DETAIL CONFLICTS
The FARC said the three Americans were CIA operatives gathering information on the rebels, and that the plane crashed because one of their units shot it down -- two assertions U.S. officials have denied.
While the plane was riddled with bullets, both Colombian and American authorities have insisted the Cessna made an emergency landing because of engine trouble.
U.S. authorities also have said the men are defense contractors working for the U.S. Embassy, not the CIA.
Officials have not expanded on their mission, but the men's plane, a Cessna 208, carried electronic intelligence gathering equipment, defense industry sources said. The contractors work for California Microwave Systems Co., according to congressional and defense industry sources.
The company, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, specializes in airborne reconnaissance and surveillance equipment, according to its website, which also says the company has contracts with the U.S. military and international defense organizations.
Spokesmen for both Northrop Grumman and California Microwave Systems said their companies had ''no comment'' about the incident, and referred calls to the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá.
So far the rebels have not asked for a ransom, or offered to exchange their hostages for imprisoned FARC members, as analysts had envisioned.
Instead, their sole demand was worded this way: ``We can only guarantee the life and physical integrity of the three gringo officials in our control if the Colombian army immediately suspends military operations and overflights in the area.''
Asked about the demand, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said only that it was a reminder of how dangerous the group known as the FARC is, ``how they are well-known for hostage-taking and for trying to bring harm to the civilian population of Colombia.
The kidnapping -- the first involving U.S. government employees in decades -- comes at a time when the U.S. is expanding its involvement in Colombia. Last year, the Bush administration decided that aid could be used not only to fight drug traffickers, but also to battle leftist guerrillas. Recently, 70 U.S. Green Berets were sent to train Colombians to protect an oil pipeline frequently targeted by rebels.
Now, the number of U.S. military troops tops 400. As recently as Jan. 13, there were only 208 military personnel in Colombia, according to a congressional report.
SAFETY CONCERNS
Meanwhile, a former U.S. lawmaker and CIA analyst raised questions Saturday about the safety of all contractors in Colombia.
Bob Barr, a four-term conservative congressman from Georgia who is now a lobbyist, visited Colombia last fall and issued a scathing report on operations under the $2 billion aid package known as Plan Colombia.
The aid package provides money to fight Colombia's drug industry, which supplies 90 percent of the United States' cocaine. The FARC earns money off taxes from coca growers.
In the past five years, 12 Americans -- including six government contractors -- have died in Colombia because of lax safety measures, Barr said in his report.
A ''little shot of reality here: Today in Colombia, the FARC has a bounty on the heads of Americans working with the Colombian National Police and military,'' he said. `They are all targets.''
Marika Lynch reported from Bogotá, and Tim Johnson reported from Washington.
US considers intervention in Colombia*** The United States is considering direct military intervention in Colombia for the first time following the murder of an American and the kidnapping of three others, all suspected CIA agents. The US embassy in Colombia has recommended Washington make a 'major response' to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) rebels responsible, and American officials have confirmed that military action is being considered to recover the men from the dense jungles of the southern province of Caqueta. They were captured after their plane crashed into the jungle suffering engine trouble. Despite the swift arrival of the Colombian army, the rebels spirited three survivors away after executing one American and the Colombian pilot who are thought to have put up a struggle.***
Colombia - Right-wing paramilitaries threaten to take up arms following two-month cease-fire*** BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA - The El Nogal social club, the site of last Friday's deadly bomb blast, may have been specifically targeted because of its suspected role in Colombia's fledgling peace process. Since December, left-wing rebels claim, the government has been conducting peace talks at the tony club with the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary group. The paramilitaries, headed by Carlos Castaño, wanted in the United States on charges of drug trafficking and terrorism, had implemented a unilateral cease-fire.
But on a website friendly to the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which President Alvaro Uribe Vélez blamed for Friday's car bomb, a message read: "The luxurious club was the frequent site of meetings between political and business sectors with spokesmen for paramilitaries," the Resistance Network site said. "The current process of legalizing paramilitaries is the product of meetings held in different luxury locales in exclusive northern BogotÁ."
Now, in addition to the 32 people killed and 160 wounded in explosion - the biggest terrorist incident here in more than a decade - the most significant casualty may be the peace process itself. The AUC is hinting that it will once again take up arms against the FARC.***
Dueling websites
In a letter posted on its website, the AUC said: "If the guerrillas [do not abandon] their practices against the civilian population in their crazy war against the legitimate state, the declaration of peace by the AUC should be revised in letter, if not in spirit." The group added that the leftist guerrillas have taken advantage of the cease-fire to advance their military agenda instead of seeking a negotiated end to the conflict.
The FARC has not taken explicit responsibility for the blast. Independent Colombian defense analyst Alfredo Rangel says that if the AUC does indeed resume its battle against left-wing rebels, the peace process is in jeopardy, as the government has refused to negotiate without a cease-fire. "I don't see [the process] broken, but I see it in a situation of very high risk," Mr. Rangel says. The paramilitaries began as a loose coalition of ranchers protecting themselves against drug traffickers in the 1980s. But in the absence of strong government forces, it soon evolved into a right-wing army to battle the FARC.
Last week, El Tiempo, Colombia's leading newspaper, published a schedule of peace talks that was to conclude at the end of this year with the signing of a peace accord witnessed by former US President Jimmy Carter. During the first "negotiation" phase, lasting from January to June 11, meetings would take place between government peace commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo, Mr. Castaño, and Salvatore Mancuso, another paramilitary chief wanted by the US. Topics under consideration are freezing arrest warrants for AUC members involved in negotiations and the return of people displaced by the four-decade conflict to paramilitary-controlled land.
In a surprise move last week, Castaño requested to a local radio program that the government create a "concentration zone" where peace talks could be held in Urabá, in the state of Antioquia. The idea brought to mind the failed demilitarized zone granted to the FARC in 1998 by former President Andres Pastrana as a haven for peace talks. The large zone was revoked a year ago this week after the FARC continued its violent behavior and used the zone to stash kidnapping victims and grow coca. But Castaño insisted that "it is not the same concept," because the police and the Army would be allowed in the area along with international observers. Furthermore, such a zone would only be two to five miles square, compared with the demilitarized zone that was the size of Switzerland.***
Rebels join forces with drug dealers when our War On Some Drugs makes drugrunning profitable enough to repay the rebels for the alliance.
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