Members of the U.S. trained Colombian Army's 3rd counter narcotics battalion salute during their graduation ceremony at the Larandia military base in southern Colombia, Thursday, May 24, 2001. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

The 698-troop battalion will operate out of the Larandia base in the southeastern department of Caquetá, the epicentre of Plan Colombia, which the United States is helping to finance with a 1.3 billion dollar contribution, 70 percent of which has been earmarked for the fight against drugs.

The United States has provided 25 helicopters, which sprayed and eradicated 30,000 hectares of coca crops from December to March, 40 percent of them located in southeastern Colombia, according to Defence Ministry figures.

The new battalion is part of the ''Southern Task Forces'', made up of 10,000 army and navy troops and police agents posted at the Tres Esquinas military base in Caquetá, said brigade commander General Mario Montoya.

The aim of Plan Colombia is to totally wipe out drug trafficking in this country, which has become the world's leading supplier of cocaine, within five years.

The anti-narcotics battalion will concentrate its operations in the departments of Putumayo and Caquetá, a region with a heavy paramilitary and guerrilla presence, where 70 percent of the coca used to produce cocaine is grown, said Montoya. It will then move on to fight drug trafficking in other parts of this country of 40 million.

The battalion is equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry and technology, and has received military training from Washington in the framework of Plan Colombia, which was designed by U.S. and Colombian policy-makers and put into effect last August.

There are currently 170 U.S. military trainers and 60 advisers in Colombia, said Montoya.

The U.S. military presence and the uses given to most of Washington's aid for Plan Colombia have stirred up a storm of opposition at home and abroad.

An alliance of 60 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from Colombia, the United States and Europe, for instance, argues that the mostly military aid will only lead to a further escalation of the decades-old war, and could turn Colombia into a new Vietnam.

Independent Senator Rafael Orduz told IPS that the launch of the new battalion completed ''the foundation of force of Plan Colombia, a strategy designed by Washington and the Pastrana administration that combines military strength and the eradication of illicit crops.''

But Orduz maintained that the U.S. presence could not be considered an act of ''interventionism,'' because it was based on a U.S. law that was accepted by the Pastrana government.

The legislator said the strategy, which consists of fighting drug traffickers, right-wing paramilitaries and guerrillas - with which the government is involved in peace talks - alike, is a ''fatal combination'' which will end up displacing the civilian population from areas where coca crops are being sprayed.

The U.S. presence is part of ''a long-term, continent-wide strategy of the Pentagon (U.S. Department of Defence), which is seeking to gain control over the territory for its global free trade policy,'' said Jorge Rojas, with the coalition of local NGOs, Paz Colombia.

The U.S. State Department is pressing for congressional approval of a ''Regional Andean Initiative'', secretly negotiated with Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, according to press reports.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell argues that the Andean initiative would enable Washington to focus on the drug trade in Colombia, without losing sight of the fact that it is a ''regional problem.''

The government of George W. Bush plans to assign 731 million dollars to the Andean region initiative in next year's budget. Half of the funds would go to Colombia, and the rest to the other five countries, which fear the spillover effects of Plan Colombia, already felt by Ecuador and Venezuela.

Copyright 2001 IPS

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