Colombia denies US military aid to be used against guerrillas

BOGOTA -- US anti-drug military aid will not be used against leftist
guerrillas, Colombia's defense minister said Sunday.

"American aid will at no time be used in the struggle against the
insurgents," Defense Minister Rodrigo Lloreda told reporters.

The minister was responding to a Washington Post report on Sunday that the
United States is substantially increasing its aid and ties to the Colombian
military despite its long record of human rights abuses.

Top US officials told the Post they are compelled to collaborate again with
the Colombian military because the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC), the country's largest left-wing rebel group, relies on money from
drug sales to buy sophisticated weapons and radio equipment.

The fight against the rebels "will be fought by us, Colombians," Lloreda
said, adding that the aid has yet to materialize.

"There's no doubt that there's a new climate in our relations with the
United States and the aid is only for logistical support of the police and
army, but never for the war the government is waging against insurgent
groups," Lloreda said.

The United States will send money to train and partially fund a
1,000-soldier anti-narcotics brigade, according to the Post, which quotes
US and Colombian officials.

The money also will fund a CIA-sponsored intelligence center and radio
listening post deep in the Colombian Amazon, the newspaper reported.

The exact amount of money involved is unclear: while the Colombian military
has asked for 1.3 billion dollars over five years for the brigade, the US
has committed only to training and supplying equipment for the brigade
soldiers, the Post reported.

The United States had close ties with the Colombian military up to the
early 1990s, when direct aid was all but cut off due to an outcry over
military involvement in human rights abuses.

Since then, most of the US anti-drug funds going to Colombia are sent to
the national police and not the army.

In 1998 the United States funneled 289 million dollars to the Colombian
police, up from 180 million dollars the previous year, according to the Post.

In the 1990s the US military however continued sending small groups of
Special Forces soldiers to Colombia on training missions, the Post reported.

Checked-by: Richard Lake