In a policy shift that signals an escalation of U.S. involvement in Colombia’s civil war, U.S. Special Forces are training the Colombian military in counterinsurgency tactics aimed at stemming guerrilla attacks on an oil pipeline in northeastern Colombia. In January, up to 100 Army Green Berets began training Colombia’s 18th Brigade. The Brigade’s mission is to protect the 500-mile Caño Limón pipeline that stretches from the Caño Limón oil fields in the province of Arauca near the Venezuelan border to the Caribbean port of Coveñas.
The Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corporation and Ecopetrol, the Colombian state-owned company jointly operate the pipeline, which was bombed 170 times in 2001. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) target the pipeline as a means of extorting funds from the local government and oil companies.
Direct U.S. military involvement in Colombia’s counterinsurgency efforts marks a new emphasis in U.S. policy. Past U.S. operations in Colombia officially focused on drug control. Steven Lucas, spokesman for the United States Southern Command said, “the difference now is primarily in scale and scope.” But Adam Isacson, a senior associate at the Center for International Policy in Washington D.C., called the use of military assistance for the protection of an oil pipeline under the old policy “unthinkable.”
The Bush administration has asked Congress to approve $98 million for 2003 to help the Colombian military protect the pipeline; an additional $6 million has already been awarded to jumpstart the project. The bulk of the money will be used for helicopters, training, infrastructure and intelligence support.
Isacson characterized the new policy as “a definite escalation. They are getting $100 million more in funds, so the difference is measurable, but it’s not just quantitative, it’s qualitative. Now we’re in the war and the line in the sand [between drug control and counterinsurgency] has been erased.”
The U.S. military has been working with Colombian forces in the southern drug-producing zone where the FARC has a heavy presence for several years. Now, with the trainers going to Arauca, the mission is clearly counterinsurgency and makes explicit U.S. entanglement in Colombia’s 38-year civil war.
In response to the increased U.S. presence, the FARC has stepped up bombings in Arauca. A FARC bomb exploded on a bus carrying 17 Colombian Occidental oil workers, killing two of them. The FARC sent another obvious message with a September mortar attack on the base where the United States troops will be stationed. Although U.S. personnel are not allowed to engage in combat, they are allowed to defend themselves if attacked—a likely possibility considering they are entering the front lines of a war zone.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Teo Ballvé is the Associate Editor of the NACLA Report on the Americas
