[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Imperiled pipeline gets U.S. troops in Colombia

[Margaret E. Kosal]

Headline makes no pretense - US military to protect US oil interests ... 
bwah!!!

Final line is sad - what the US represents to the world :-(

>--------------------
>Imperiled pipeline gets U.S. troops in Colombia
>--------------------
>
>By Gary Marx
>Tribune foreign correspondent
>
>November 12, 2002
>
>SARAVENA, Colombia -- On the edge of the war-torn city of Saravena, U.S. 
>military advisers are preparing for a major escalation of American 
>involvement in Colombia's 38-year-old civil war.
>
>Until now, U.S. military and economic assistance to Colombia has gone 
>largely to fight the drug war. But in January, between 60 and 100 U.S. 
>Special Forces soldiers will arrive in Saravena and the surrounding area 
>to train thousands of Colombian troops to protect a 500-mile pipeline 
>owned in part by Occidental Petroleum Corp. of Los Angeles.
>
>Their arrival will mark the United States' first close involvement in a 
>bloody and complex conflict waged between and among two leftist insurgent 
>groups, a right-wing paramilitary force and the outnumbered Colombian military.
>
>At Saravena's military base, four U.S. advisers are constructing 10 
>helicopter pads and fortifying barracks that will house the Special Forces 
>troops.
>
>Sandbags stacked 6 feet high ring the barracks. Sandbags are piled on the 
>roofs, too, so that homemade rebel rockets made of gas canisters would 
>roll off the barracks before exploding.
>
>"This is one of the most difficult regions in Colombia relative to threat 
>but we understand what we are getting ourselves into," said Wade Chapple, 
>one of the four U.S. advisers. "We know who is who and we do our best to 
>minimize our vulnerability."
>
>The battle over the pipeline, which winds through northern Colombia 
>carrying 120,000 barrels of oil a day, has lasted the better part of 15 
>years. The pipeline is a key source of revenue for both the leftist 
>insurgents and the Colombian government.
>
>Since 1986 the pipeline has been bombed 950 times by leftist rebels, 
>shutting it down for months on end and costing the cash-starved Colombian 
>government $2.5 billion in lost revenues.
>
>The rebels, who view the pipeline as a symbol of U.S. imperialism, have 
>used the attacks to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from local 
>businesses and others.
>
>The Colombian government, after years of inaction, is trying to wrest back 
>control. For that, according to recently elected President Alvaro Uribe, 
>Colombia needs the expertise and weaponry of the U.S. military.
>
>The dramatic shift in U.S. policy faced opposition from some lawmakers, 
>human-rights workers and others who fear U.S. troops could get bogged down 
>in an interminable war where the insurgents fight with car bombs, homemade 
>rockets and assassinations.
>
>Another concern is that the U.S. advisers will be working closely with a 
>Colombian military that long has been accused of human-rights violations. 
>Some critics also say the plan forces American taxpayers to foot the bill 
>for the security of a private oil company.
>
>The Bush administration won congressional approval in July for the first 
>part of a proposed $104 million pipeline-protection package by arguing 
>that Colombia's fight against leftist rebels is part of the United States' 
>global battle against terrorism. The State Department has labeled all 
>three of Colombia's insurgent groups "terrorist" organizations.
>
>Protecting Colombian oil also fits into the long-standing goal of reducing 
>U.S. dependence on Middle East oil, especially in light of possible 
>military action against Iraq. Colombia is the ninth-largest supplier of 
>imported oil to the United States.
>
>"The United States receives 3 percent of its [oil] needs from Colombia," 
>said Anne Patterson, the U.S. ambassador to Colombia. "That's not much. 
>But with problems in other countries each percentage is important."
>
>The pipeline runs through miles of guerrilla-held territory, along the 
>porous Venezuelan border and up steep, inaccessible mountains before 
>emptying at the Caribbean coast. Most guerrilla attacks occur in a 50-mile 
>stretch that passes near Saravena.
>
>1st focus: Better intelligence
>
>U.S. military planners are hoping first to improve Colombia's intelligence 
>capabilities. Then, with U.S.-supplied helicopters, better-trained 
>counterinsurgency units could quickly engage the rebels, who up to now 
>have operated with relative impunity.
>
>"That's a long-term project," said Chapple, a U.S. Army special operations 
>officer. "The terrain is difficult and there are large distances that we 
>cover. You can't put soldiers [on the pipeline] every 5 feet. Lack of 
>mobility is a concern."
>
>In Saravena, a ramshackle town located on a lush plain, officials and 
>residents greet the plan for U.S. forces with a mixture of anguish and support.
>
>Some say they are tired of the conflict and are ready to back Uribe's 
>get-tough policy. Others fear that the arrival of U.S military trainers, 
>their helicopters and other equipment will only intensify a conflict that 
>kills about 3,500 Colombians a year and has devastated the town.
>
>"I am one of those people who think that more war will not solve 
>anything," said Saravena Mayor Jose Trinidad Sierra.
>
>Already this year attacks by leftist rebels in Saravena have killed a 
>half-dozen people and injured more than 50 others. Launching homemade 
>rockets, the rebels have turned the downtown area into rubble, destroying 
>the city hall, the city council building, the prosecutor's office and many 
>other structures.
>
>Craters from rocket attacks pockmark the town's main plaza.
>
>"My family prays for me," said Omar Neiza, a 22-year-old Colombian police 
>officer in Saravena. "What we hope for is to get shot in the leg or get 
>sick so that we can get out of here."
>
>The pipeline, which transports oil from the giant 1.2 billion-barrel Cano 
>Limon field, has been a magnet for Colombian insurgents since it was 
>opened under a joint operating agreement between Occidental and Colombia's 
>state-owned oil company, Ecopetrol.
>
>For years, Saravena and the surrounding region were dominated by the 
>National Liberation Army, or ELN, Colombia's second-largest leftist rebel 
>army. The ELN bombed the pipeline 40 or 50 times a year, enough to extort 
>protection money, known as vacunas, or vaccinations, out of oil 
>contractors and other businesses.
>
>The rebels also took over local governments and siphoned off millions of 
>dollars in oil royalties that by law must be paid by Occidental to local 
>municipal and state entities.
>
>"The ELN maximized its racketeering operation," explained one Occidental 
>official in Colombia. "What they did is go after the big resources and 
>that's the royalties."
>
>The ELN's dominance ended in 1997, when Colombia's largest leftist 
>insurgency, the 18,000-member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or 
>FARC, began battling for control of the pipeline.
>
>The struggle peaked last year when the FARC bombed the pipeline 170 times 
>and shut it down for more than 200 days--thus denying the ELN the revenue 
>to fund its army.
>
>Occidental's profits eroded
>
>The bombings also hurt the bottom line of Occidental, which gets about 6.5 
>percent of its world production from the Cano Limon field. The frequent 
>shutdowns last year cost Colombia's government an estimated $500 million 
>in lost revenue, or roughly 2 percent of its budget.
>
>"Occidental did lose money as a result of the pipeline being down, but 
>those losses were dwarfed by the losses of the Colombian government," said 
>Larry Meriage, an Occidental spokesman in Los Angeles.
>
>While Occidental and Ecopetrol have provided helicopters, food and other 
>logistical support to the Colombian military, corporate executives met 
>last year with then-President Andres Pastrana and Patterson, the U.S. 
>ambassador, to persuade them to bolster pipeline protection.
>
>Meriage said it was U.S. Embassy officials who took the lead in the 
>pipeline protection effort in Washington, though he acknowledged that the 
>decision to send U.S. military advisers to the region will help 
>Occidental's oil operation in Colombia.
>
>"Does the company benefit from more security in the area? Absolutely," 
>Meriage said.
>
>Earlier this year, Colombia's military shifted large numbers of troops to 
>protect the pipeline--something that has helped reduce the number of rebel 
>attacks to 32 this year.
>
>The success has provided a badly needed boost to the security forces here 
>while also sending a strong signal to U.S. officials that Colombia--while 
>desperately needing U.S. military assistance--is prepared to do the actual 
>fighting against the guerrillas.
>
>"We don't need [U.S.] troops to fight. It's our fight," said Colombian 
>Vice President Fernando Santos. "We know that it is a fight that we have 
>to win."
>
>But some human-rights workers say the Colombian army unit responsible for 
>pipeline protection, the 18th Brigade, has aided the advance of right-wing 
>paramilitary forces, who are battling the two leftist insurgencies for 
>control of the region.
>
>Known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, the 
>paramilitary squads are suspected of assassinating two local congressmen 
>and are believed responsible for 70 percent of 420 political killings this 
>year in nearby Arauca city, the state capital.
>
>Paramilitaries move in too
>
>In two public letters circulated in Arauca city, the AUC marked more than 
>100 prominent residents for death and vowed to cleanse the region of 
>guerrillas and their supporters.
>
>"We will begin with those persons who are most compromised and whom do not 
>have any other alternative but death," one letter said.
>
>Gen. Carlos Lemus, commander of the 18th Brigade, which will be the focus 
>of U.S. military efforts, denied links to the AUC and said his forces are 
>fighting the two leftist insurgencies and the paramilitaries "with the 
>same vigor."
>
>"For our troops there is no difference between the terrorist FARC, the 
>terrorist ELN or the terrorist paramilitaries," he said.
>
>Lemus said he is confident the U.S. military assistance will make a 
>difference in the battle to protect the pipeline. But a recent FARC car 
>bombing near Saravena illustrated the challenge of fighting an enemy that 
>strikes and flees, rarely offering a solid military target.
>
>The blast, aimed at a caravan of trucks owned by the state oil company, 
>killed one oil worker and injured another.
>
>The Colombian military quickly scrambled a single helicopter to strafe the 
>guerrilla bombers. But it had no helicopters or vehicles to ferry troops 
>to the battlefield. Instead, dozens of Colombian soldiers loaded down with 
>rifles, grenade launchers and other equipment trudged along an empty 
>highway 6 miles on foot.
>
>After a brief battle, the two dozen guerrillas escaped into the 
>surrounding foothills, leaving only residents who were picking through 
>body parts, empty shell casings and the charred remains of the vehicle.
>
>"We can't respond quickly," said the commander of the local battalion. 
>"The guerrillas take off their uniforms, grab a hoe, and you don't know 
>who is who.
>
>"The U.S. has a lot of experience in war. They can help us," he said.
>
>
>Copyright (c) 2002, Chicago Tribune