Word: farces
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...Representatives Thursday, is motivated less by ideological affinity with Colombia's rulers than by the war on drugs, but nobody doubts that its net effect will be to beef up counterinsurgency efforts. In instances - and there are many - where the leftist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC) stand between the authorities and the drug traffickers, fighting the FARC inevitably becomes part and parcel of the war on drugs. But the Pentagon and a number of U.S. legislators believe the aid puts Washington on a slippery slope to direct involvement in a four-decades-old civil...
...meanwhile, began warning that Colombia was spiraling out of control. The coca fields in the south were protected by guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), an 11,000-strong force, which, along with the 6,000-member National Liberation Army, operates in 40% of the country. The FARC was earning at least $100 million a year from the traffickers. Its well-armed guerrillas, who have choppers, signal-intelligence equipment and even R.-and-R. resorts in Panama, were becoming better paid and equipped than Colombian army soldiers...
...however, crushing the drug cartels means taking on the FARC as well as guerrillas of the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) and their foes, the right-wing paramilitaries. Until five years ago, these rebels were happy to charge drug producers a protection "tax." But according to McCaffery, both the rebels and their paramilitary rivals are moving directly into the trade. Using the profits--and yearly payoffs from the drug lords, which, according to McCaffery, run anywhere from $250 million to $600 million--the FARC and the ELN rebels have conquered nearly 40% of the country and inflicted one defeat after...
Already the U.S. is passing intelligence about FARC activities to Colombia's top military officers. And U.S. planes, based in Florida, Colombia, Ecuador and Honduras, have flown more than 2,000 counter-drug missions. Many of those were reconnaissance flights similar to the one that crashed southeast of Bogota on July 21, killing its American crew and two Colombian officers. The efforts are backed by a $289 million annual aid package. (Colombia is the third largest recipient of U.S. largesse, behind Israel and Egypt...
...begin wide-scale planting of coca and heroin. Data from U.S. satellites indicate "an explosion" of drug growth inside Colombia over the next couple of years, McCaffery says, and that means more arms and money for the guerrillas. "What we're seeing," the general asserts, "is that when the FARC now wants to ambush a police station, they'll go in with rockets, mortars...