Envie esta ma�ana un peque�o asesoramiento de la situacion en Colombia sobre la paz. Acabo de recibir esta noticia que adjunto (lo siento por ser en Ingles) que muestra que una de mis soluciones (la de formar un grupo elite de mercenarios para combatir los criminales en la selva) se va ha ser realidad. Apuesto que para esta epoca el proximo a�o Marin y los discipulos de Torres estaran mas que ansiosos y agradecidos que los llamen a sentarse a una mesa para firmar un acuerdo de paz. Y en esa ocasion, si se aparecera el caudillo que tanto miedo le dio en Agosto. Saludos, Dario ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Colombia and allies ready for war against rebels March 16, 1999 Web posted at: 10:55 AM EST (1555 GMT) BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) -- With Colombia's peace process in virtual tatters, the government, backed by the United States and its regional allies, is preparing to step up its war against Marxist rebels. Colombia launched a program this month to overhaul its ill-equipped and poorly motivated military and create a more professional force that would be "ready for peace or war." Meanwhile, neighbors Peru and Ecuador have moved more troops to their northern borders under a U.S.-devised plan to contain Colombian "narco-traffickers and their associated insurgents." Washington has shied away from taking a direct hand in Colombia's long-running conflict, which has claimed more than 35,000 lives in the last 10 years alone. It insists its aid packages are devoted to a war against drugs. But that war is increasingly taking on overtones of a counterinsurgency effort. And in the aftermath of this month's kidnap-murders of three Americans by Marxist rebels, Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill are expected to urge beefed-up assistance to the Colombian army to fight guerrillas. "The peace process has been seriously wounded. What can be expected from now on is a hardening of the U.S. government's stance with respect to the FARC," Maria Jimena Duzan, political commentator for Bogota's El Espectador newspaper, wrote. After initial denials, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) claimed responsibility for the brutal killings of Terence Freitas, 24, Ingrid Washinawatok, 41, and Laheenae Gay, 39, who were helping U'wa Indians defend their ancestral lands against a U.S. multinational's plans to explore for oil. FARC commanders tried to shift the blame to a little-known, mid-ranking field commander. But government officials insist top regional commander German Briceno, brother of the FARC's No. 2 leader and military strategist, ordered the killings. The U.S. State Department has demanded that the FARC -- included on the U.S. list of international "terrorist" groups -- surrender the killers for extradition. Augusto Ramirez of Colombia's church-backed National Peace Commission said the murders were "extremely bad for the peace process." The internal conflict has been bleeding Colombia for nearly four decades and President Andres Pastrana, who took office in August, has made a negotiated settlement his top priority. But the FARC broke off talks just days after they got under way in January and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN) has also put an abrupt end to exploratory talks with the government. Washington pledged support for Pastrana's peace efforts and a senior State Department official even held an unprecedented meeting with a top FARC commander in Costa Rica in December. But the United States is due to give Colombia a record $240 million aid package in 1999, including weapons and aircraft, and it is helping to set up an elite 1,000-strong army anti-narcotics unit near rebel strongholds in the south. Most of the aid is ostensibly to fight the war against cocaine and heroin, but U.S. and Colombian officials call the estimated 20,000 insurgents "narco-guerrillas," blurring the line between counter-narcotics and counterinsurgency. In tandem with efforts to boost the combat readiness of Colombia's police and army, the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command helped persuade Peru and Ecuador to beef up their troop presence along their borders. "(Southern Command chief) Gen. Charles Wilhelm encouraged ... Peru and Ecuador to reinforce their borders with Colombia because of the use of those rather porous frontiers by narco-traffickers and their associated insurgents," spokesman Steve Lucas said. Peru and Ecuador bolstered border patrols in January, soon after the FARC suspended peace talks. Peru has dispatched two battalions, about 1,200 men, to its northern frontier. Ecuador has deployed a special forces brigade but declined to give numbers. Venezuela is also believed to have about 12,000 soldiers in some 70 outposts along its border with Colombia. Throughout the region, U.S. special forces teams continue to give military training to local armies. Lucas said Southern Command had 160 U.S. servicemen in Ecuador, 136 in Venezuela and 181 in Peru, as of last month. It is not clear if a scheduled April 20 meeting between government and FARC representatives will succeed in reviving the moribund peace process. Some critics accuse Pastrana of making too many concessions to the rebels. They cite his decision to let the FARC set up a virtual "independent republic" in a Switzerland-sized area of southeast Colombia after he pulled government security forces out of the area to set the stage for negotiations. The rebels have offered little in return and reject demands to stop using ransoms from kidnapping and "taxes" raised by protecting illicit drug crops to bankroll their uprising. "If things go on as they are Colombia will end up being an archipelago of bloody little independent republics financed by kidnapping and drug-trafficking and manipulated by the paramilitaries or the subversives," former Vice President Carlos Lemos Simmonds said. Amid growing frustration with the rebels, Pastrana said he would not extend the demilitarization in the southeast when it expired May 7, a move that could signal the end of official moves toward Colombia's pacification. If talks break down definitively, regional FARC warlords say they are laying plans for a "first, great offensive" to set up a government of "workers, peasants and Indians" by force. Defense Minister Rodrigo Lloreda, meanwhile, answered "of course" when asked in a recent interview if the government had a "Plan B." As part of that plan, he said he was already replacing raw recruits with professional soldiers. He is also improving intelligence gathering and turning around the military's poor human rights record -- one of the worst in Latin America. The U.S.-backed 1,000-strong army anti-drug battalion, due to be set up by mid-year, is also seen as a key new weapon. With plans to base it in southern Caqueta or Putumayo provinces -- long-standing FARC strongholds -- there is little doubt the unit will see frequent action against the rebels. General Wilhelm believes rebels now pose a threat to the stability of the entire region and warned that the guerrillas could take power within five years if not held in check. Political observers believe the possibility of direct U.S. intervention in Colombia's conflict is remote but say Washington is playing an ever-greater behind-the-scenes role. "We should be concerned about Uncle Sam's increasing indirect role," said Alejandro Santos, a columnist in leading weekly news magazine Semana. "U.S. intervention is based on the deadly equation that they give the military technology and the weapons and we provide the dead."
