U.S. role in Colombia widens to oil

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Posted 8:59AM on Wednesday, February 6, 2002

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA - The Bush administration announced plans to help Colombia protect a strategic oil pipeline that has been a frequent target of guerrilla attacks, a dramatic departure from a policy that had previously limited aid to wiping out drug crops. The plan, outlined Tuesday by a U.S. delegation to Bogota, calls for $98 million to train and equip a Colombian army brigade to protect the 480-mile Cano-Limon oil pipeline, which ferries oil to the Caribbean coast for Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum and other companies. ``We are committed to help Colombians create a Colombia that is a peaceful, prosperous, drug-free and terror-free democracy,'' said Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman, who led the delegation. By arming and training Colombian soldiers, the United States would be taking a significant leap into the country's 38-year civil war, which pits two rebel groups and an outlawed right-wing paramilitary against the government. About 3,500 people die every year in the conflict, which has choked the economic potential of this resource-rich South American country. Rebel sabotage of U.S. and Colombian oil operations prevented the production of more than 24 million barrels of crude last year, according to state oil company Ecopetrol. Colombia is the 10th-biggest supplier of oil to the United States. U.S. military aid to Colombia has been limited mostly to attempts to destroy cocaine- and heroin-producing crops, which finance the rebels and their paramilitary foes. On Monday, President Bush proposed $731 million in counter-narcotics aid for the Andean region in his 2003 budget. But the plan to protect the pipeline could face opposition in Congress. The $1.3 billion Plan Colombia package passed in 2000 limited military aid to fighting drugs. Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., said lawmakers should scrutinize any attempt to expand military assistance. ``This was not what was debated in Congress when Plan Colombia was passed. We are getting deeper into this conflict,'' said Wellstone, who opposed the previous Colombian aid proposals. Members of the U.S. delegation that met with Colombian President Andres Pastrana on Tuesday said much of the $98 million would pay for aircraft, although there are no specifics yet. A State Department official said the proposal is ``entirely consistent with existing policy.'' The Bush administration may also argue that the United States needs to assure a reliable flow of oil from Colombia, closer to U.S. shores than the volatile Middle East, U.S. officials said. Also Tuesday, Colombia proposed a six-month cease-fire to the country's main rebel army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. There was no immediate response from the 16,000-strong group, which agreed last month to set cease-fire terms by April 7, narrowly averting a collapse of Colombia's three-year-old peace process. If the FARC agreed to the cease-fire, government troops and police would continue operations against the smaller rebel group, the National Liberation Army, and the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia. The government also called on the rebels to release all of their hostages, suspend kidnappings and extortion and halt attacks on the nation's infrastructure - including oil facilities. In addition to pipeline protection, the United States is preparing to assist Colombia in combatting kidnapping, Grossman said. Most of the 3,000 yearly abductions in Colombia are carried out by rebels for ransom.