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Bush to Ask Congress for
More U.S. Troops in Colombia
March 22, 2004
By Paul Basken
March 22 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration plans to ask Congress to let it
increase by 75 percent the number of U.S. troops and contractors in Colombia,
citing the need to bolster its fight against drug traffickers and rebel
fighters.
The Bush administration wants Congress to raise the cap on U.S. soldiers and
advisers to 800 from 400 and to increase the limit on civilian contractors to
600 from 400, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in
Washington.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, beginning a three-day visit to Washington
today, has said he backs the move. The U.S. has provided Colombia with more than
$3 billion in aid during the last four years.
``The Uribe administration has been dealing severe blows on the narco-terrorists,
and this increase in the number of military and civilian contractors is needed
to help them sustain the current high tempo of operations,'' Boucher said.
Companies with U.S. government contracts for work in Colombia include Lockheed
Martin Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp. and the DynCorp unit of Computer Sciences
Corp., according to an April 2003 State Department report to Congress.
``It seems that the Bush administration's solution to dealing with the world is
to deploy more U.S. soldiers and guns for hire, while refusing to seek real,
lasting solutions,'' said
Representative Jan Schakowsky, a Democrat of Illinois, who has led efforts to
block U.S. military involvement in Colombia. ``It's time for a new direction in
U.S. international policy and
diplomacy,'' she said.
21 Percent Decline
The Bush administration today also said that cultivation of coca, the plant from
which cocaine is derived, declined 21 percent last year in Colombia, the world's
leading cocaine producer.
Net coca cultivation in Colombia fell to 440 square miles in 2003 from 558
square miles in 2002 and 656 square miles in the peak growing year of 2001,
according to the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Along with previously released U.S. government estimates for Peru and Bolivia,
the Colombian cultivation represents a total production for the region of 655
metric tons, its lowest level
since estimates began in 1986, the drug office said.
Uribe plans during a meeting tomorrow with President George W. Bush to seek an
expansion of U.S. military efforts, Uribe's office said. The U.S. has spent
about $3.15 billion in Colombia since 2000, including about $2.5 billion is
military and police assistance, said Adam Isacson, director of the Colombia
program at the Center for International Policy, a Washington-based policy study
group.
`Don't be Hysterical'
``We were told in 2000, don't be hysterical'' about the possibility of an
expanded U.S. military role, Isacson said. ``Now, four years later, not
only have they broadened the mission and they are putting U.S. troops in roles
we hadn't imagined back in 2000, but now they're up against the cap and they
need more,'' he said.
Those additional roles include protecting an oil pipeline partly owned by the
Occidental Petroleum Corp., helping the Colombian military create a unit to
eliminate guerilla leaders,
and providing logistical data to help the military recapture rebel-held
territory, he said.
While no U.S. troops have died in Colombia since a 1999 plane crash, 11 U.S.
contractors have been killed since 1998, including six last year, Isacson said.
Another three have been held hostage since February by the rebel Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, he said.
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