Colombia: arrivano i berretti verdi USA

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U.S. Envoy Greets Forces in Colombia

By VANESSA ARRINGTON
Associated Press Writer


January 18, 2003, 6:20 AM EST

Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press

ARAUCA, Colombia -- U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson, guarded by U.S. special
forces in a machine-gun mounted Humvee, came to one of Colombia's bloodiest
war zones Friday to meet with U.S. commanders training Colombian troops.
The Humvee, carrying heavily armed U.S. soldiers, trailed Patterson as she
rode in a bulletproof SUV from the airport to a sprawling Colombian army
base outside the eastern town of Arauca.
Patterson told reporters 70 U.S. Army trainers had arrived in Arauca over
the past few days, and that they would stay for about three months to train
6,500 Colombian soldiers to protect a key oil pipeline from attacks by
rebels.
Some residents of Arauca, who have endured rebel car bombings and
assassinations, said they were happy to see the Americans.
"They are welcome here," said a 40-year-old street vendor, who asked not to
be named. "They have a lot of experience. There's a lot they can teach our
soldiers during such a difficult time."
The deployment of the members of the 7th Special Forces Group, based at Fort
Bragg, N.C., followed a decision by the Bush administration, with approval
from Congress, that U.S. military assistance should be expanded into helping
Colombia combat the rebels.
Previously, U.S. military aid and training was restricted largely to
battling cocaine production, which rebels and rival paramilitary gunmen
profit from, fueling the war.
Colombian Defense Minister Martha Lucia Ramirez said the expanded U.S.
military aid against the rebels and outlawed paramilitary forces will "make
our actions against these groups much more effective and allow us to obtain
the result we want, which is to hit these groups hard."
Ramirez, in an interview with The Associated Press as she traveled in
northern Colombia, said she believed the U.S. military trainers would be
safe in Arauca, which has been declared a special security zone by President
Alvaro Uribe.
The U.S. special forces in Arauca and in nearby areas of eastern Colombia
are to train two Colombian army brigades that protect the Cano Limon
pipeline, which carries oil for Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum
across northern Colombia to a seaside depot, where it is loaded onto
U.S.-bound tankers.
Colombia is the 10th-biggest supplier of oil to the United States; rebel
sabotage of the Cano Limon pipeline has reduced its output.
Inside a Spanish colonial-style building that houses the Arauca base
headquarters, Patterson met with Colombian and U.S. military commanders and
civilian officials to discuss security, cooperation between civilian and
military authorities, and the ecological effects of pipeline attacks, a
Colombian army spokesman said.
Outside, a few U.S. soldiers, wearing camouflage uniforms, bulletproof vests
and dark glasses, stood guard.
The ambassador then flew on an Occidental helicopter to the Cano Limon oil
field, where she greeted 20 newly arrived American trainers. Travel by road
is dangerous. In December, suspected rebels set off a bomb next to a bus
carrying Cano Limon workers, killing two of them and injuring 11.
U.S. special forces already have trained a 2,000-member Colombian army
counternarcotics brigade as part of almost $2 billion in mostly military aid
the United States has given Colombia over the past three years.
Colombia's 39-year civil war pits the leftist rebels against the government
and the right-wing paramilitary groups. About 3,500 people die in the
fighting each year.
Washington has ruled out a direct combat role for U.S. troops in Colombia.