On Fri, 11 Aug 2000 14:49:49 -0500 (CDT) Rich Winkel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Friday August 11 ,
Community... 2000
Published on Thursday, August 10, 2000 at 7:21 PM by Reuters
Colombia Ultra-Right Warlord Talks of U.S. Covert Ops
by Karl Penhaul
BOGOTA - Colombia's most-feared death squad leader has alleged
that U.S. anti-narcotics agents sought to enlist his outlaw
paramilitary gang to combat drug traffickers, raising fresh fears
of U.S. covert operations in this war-torn Andean nation.
In a television interview late Wednesday, Carlos Castano, leader
of the 5,000-member, ultra-right United Self-Defense Forces of
Colombia (AUC), said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) asked him to force Colombian drug traffickers to surrender
to U.S. justice.
The plan, he said, was also a way of eroding the economic mainstay
of powerful Marxist rebel factions, whom U.S. and Colombian
authorities accuse of funding a long-running uprising with
proceeds from the booming cocaine and heroin trade.
In Washington on Thursday, the DEA declined to comment on the
allegations, which came less than two months after U.S. Congress
approved a record $1.3 billion package of mostly military aid to
help Colombia fight the drug trade and guerrillas.
``The (U.S.) DEA...sent me a message and through that there was a
possibility of ending narco-trafficking in Colombia,'' Castano
said Wednesday, speaking with RCN television in his stronghold in
northern Cordoba province.
``I received a call saying the DEA was opening the doors so that
Colombian drug traffickers could surrender to U.S. justice and ...
it needed a significant force in Colombia that would induce these
people to take that decision,'' added the ultra-right warlord, who
swapped his trademark combat fatigues for a white knitted sweater
and drab green pants.
At a news conference in Washington, State Department spokesman
Richard Boucher said State Department officials had ''no intention
of soliciting his (Castano's) help'' but did not address claims
against the DEA.
Us Covert Operations
Some U.S. officials have accused Castano of funding his
anti-guerrilla crusade with drug money and insist he has heavy
backing from the military in his ``dirty war'' against suspected
leftist sympathizers. In practice, however, President Andres
Pastrana has done little to track him down.
The RCN interview with Castano coincided with a visit to Colombia
by a high-level U.S. delegation, including White House anti-drug
chief Barry McCaffrey and Undersecretary of State Thomas
Pickering. President Clinton plans to visit Colombia on Aug. 30.
The U.S. aid package has fueled fears that Washington could be
dragged deep into Colombia's civil conflict that has cost 35,000
lives in just the last 10 years. Castano's comments renewed
suspicion that U.S. agencies have been carrying out secret
operations behind the back of the Colombian government and the
U.S. Congress.
``There are serious concerns about the nature of the U.S.
engagement and fears about covert operations and escalating
paramilitary activity,'' said Winifred Tate, Colombia specialist
at the non-governmental Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).
Allegations, though hard to prove, about U.S. covert operations in
Colombia are not new.
DEA agents were suspected of forging a covert alliance linking the
Cali drug cartel, Castano's paramilitary gunmen and Colombian
security forces to combat Pablo Escobar's Medellin cocaine cartel
in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Washington-based Human Rights Watch has also accused U.S. military
intelligence officials of helping Colombia set up the forerunners
of today's illegal paramilitary groups in the late 1960s and early
1970s.
###
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