News (Media Awareness Project) - Colombia: Protests Mar Bill's Colombia Stopover |
| Title: | Colombia: Protests Mar Bill's Colombia Stopover |
| Published On: | 2000-08-31 |
| Source: | New York Daily News (NY) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-09-03 10:24:41 |
PROTESTS MAR BILL'S COLOMBIA STOPOVER
A bomb was defused and protesters hurled rocks at the American Embassy as unrest plagued President Clinton's one-day trip yesterday to Colombia to launch a U.S.-backed mission to wipe out the country's drug cartels.
"A condition of this aid is that we are not going to get into a shooting war," Clinton said in Cartagena as he touted the $1.3 billion U.S. contribution to the $7.5 billion drug-eradication mission dubbed Plan Colombia.
"This is not Vietnam, neither is it Yankee imperialism," he said.
But five blocks from a site Clinton visited later in the day, Colombian authorities arrested two men who allegedly were connecting a detonator to a 4.4-pound bomb packed with dynamite.
"It was nowhere near him," a White House official traveling with Clinton told the Daily News.
In Bogota, far from Clinton and his entourage, masked demonstrators torched a bus and at least 2,000 labor activists and students marched to the U.S. Embassy and lobbed rocks at the fortress-like structure. A police officer died after being struck in the head by a homemade grenade thrown from the crowd.
Clinton, his daughter, Chelsea, House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and others in the U.S. delegation visited Cartagena under cover of 5,000 soldiers and police, 350 U.S. Secret Service agents, helicopter gunships and Navy patrol boats along the port city.
The Americans also were hundreds of miles from the coca fields that rank Colombia as the world's largest cocaine-producing nation. Colombian drug-runners are moving into the lucrative heroin market as well.
Demand for the illegal drugs produced in Colombia is highest in the U.S. and Europe, something that Colombian President Andres Pastrana has acknowledged must be dealt with along with targeting the Colombian narcotics rings.
A well-placed source confirmed a report that Brig. Gen. Keith Huber, operations director of the U.S. Southern Command in Miami, will head the effort to train Colombian troops to fight the jungle drug producers.
Military experts noted that it is unusual for a one-star general to head a small group of military advisers, underscoring the significance of Plan Colombia. Sixty military helicopters also are part of the U.S. aid package.
In New York, dozens of protesters opposed to Plan Colombia marched in Times Square.
Similar demonstrations were staged in a dozen cities around the world. Several Democrats in Congress also have voiced opposition to Plan Colombia.
"I'm nervous about it. I don't know where it is that we're heading with this," said Rep. Jose Serrano (D-Bronx), who voted against Plan Colombia.
A bomb was defused and protesters hurled rocks at the American Embassy as unrest plagued President Clinton's one-day trip yesterday to Colombia to launch a U.S.-backed mission to wipe out the country's drug cartels.
"A condition of this aid is that we are not going to get into a shooting war," Clinton said in Cartagena as he touted the $1.3 billion U.S. contribution to the $7.5 billion drug-eradication mission dubbed Plan Colombia.
"This is not Vietnam, neither is it Yankee imperialism," he said.
But five blocks from a site Clinton visited later in the day, Colombian authorities arrested two men who allegedly were connecting a detonator to a 4.4-pound bomb packed with dynamite.
"It was nowhere near him," a White House official traveling with Clinton told the Daily News.
In Bogota, far from Clinton and his entourage, masked demonstrators torched a bus and at least 2,000 labor activists and students marched to the U.S. Embassy and lobbed rocks at the fortress-like structure. A police officer died after being struck in the head by a homemade grenade thrown from the crowd.
Clinton, his daughter, Chelsea, House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and others in the U.S. delegation visited Cartagena under cover of 5,000 soldiers and police, 350 U.S. Secret Service agents, helicopter gunships and Navy patrol boats along the port city.
The Americans also were hundreds of miles from the coca fields that rank Colombia as the world's largest cocaine-producing nation. Colombian drug-runners are moving into the lucrative heroin market as well.
Demand for the illegal drugs produced in Colombia is highest in the U.S. and Europe, something that Colombian President Andres Pastrana has acknowledged must be dealt with along with targeting the Colombian narcotics rings.
A well-placed source confirmed a report that Brig. Gen. Keith Huber, operations director of the U.S. Southern Command in Miami, will head the effort to train Colombian troops to fight the jungle drug producers.
Military experts noted that it is unusual for a one-star general to head a small group of military advisers, underscoring the significance of Plan Colombia. Sixty military helicopters also are part of the U.S. aid package.
In New York, dozens of protesters opposed to Plan Colombia marched in Times Square.
Similar demonstrations were staged in a dozen cities around the world. Several Democrats in Congress also have voiced opposition to Plan Colombia.
"I'm nervous about it. I don't know where it is that we're heading with this," said Rep. Jose Serrano (D-Bronx), who voted against Plan Colombia.
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