North American soldiers in charge of training the Colombian army against the guerrilla have been caught trafficking cocaine. They might be the link to an international network headed by the same people that were hired by the country to fight drug dealing

Rita Freire

After an investigation carried out by the local police, five North-American military taking part in Plan Colombia were arrested in Texas on March 29th. They were hiding 16 kilos of 100% pure cocaine in an US military airplane. But what really surprised the Colombian people was the country’s attitude in claiming the right to judge those who theoretically had come to save Colombia from the drug-traffic. A recommendation for the extradition of those accused was presented in court by Senator Jairo Clopatofsky, but the North American Embassy in Bogotá, headed by the diplomat Willian Wood, anticipating a formal claim by the Colombian government, stated that the traffickers had immunity.

President Alvaro Uribe was asked to return from China in the end of March to deal with the revolt that took over the country and alarmed the men in Parliament. He could do nothing but accept the humiliation: Colombia cannot ask for the extradition of those participating in the mission against drug-traffic because they are protected by agreements between the two countries.

One of the agreements preventing the Colombian government from taking action was set in 1962 and ratified in 1974 and 2000, when Plan Colombia was signed. There is also an agreement signed in 2003 in which the country agrees not to take actions against North-American soldiers in any International Criminal Court.

Journalist Alejandro Gómez, who writes for the site Nossa América, points out that the 2003 agreement was responsible for a great controversy at the time, involving the government and the Parliament, which had been left out of the decision. Immunity was granted by the agreement to North-American military men and employees in case they committed crimes in the country. It was a condition imposed by the US government in order for Colombia to be able to dispose of a five million dollar aid that had been sustained by the US State Department that year. Other 130 million estimated for 2004 were also conditioned to the acceptance of that agreement. Plan Colombia has consumed, since 2000, U$ 3 billion in military investments, including 800 soldiers and 600 North-American civilians hired for logistic support.

Senator Jimmy Chamorro, of the Colombian Foreign Relations Committee, complained the country’s sovereignty is so battered that “an American soldier can commit a crime without being punished”.

Foggy Flagrant

The arrest of the five military was not by chance, nor was it the result of US rigorous surveillance of its troops in foreign countries. The incident would have begun when the Colombian police started to distrust the men, warned the North-Americans and started to watch them.

When leaving the military base in Apiay, Meta Department, the suspects would have been followed by the police and monitored while flying so that the flagrant could be done in the US territory, where they were arrested.

Authorities in both countries were aware of the investigation, including President Alvaro Uribe, and the idea was to keep secret in order to avoid the military in Plan Colombia to become discredited. The five suspects, experts in fighting and surviving in the jungle, had been living in Colombia for two years teaching combat techniques against the guerrilla with clear targets: the FARC and the ELN.

The action was set as to repeat the secret operation carried out in 1999 when the wife of a North-American official, James Hiet, was under investigation. He was accused of using diplomatic bags to send cocaine from Colombia to the US. The flagrant took place at the New York airport, when she was claiming the drug stuffed bag.

The secret did not last much this time and the whole story seems strange. Two means of communication, the newspaper El Tiempo and the Radio Caracol, have found out about the operation to catch the five military and broadcasted the news. But the newspaper’s sources assured some of them were arrested in Colombia what, according to procurator Edgardo Maya, should have forced the arrested military to stay under Colombian police control and not sent directly home, where they became immune.

The spreading of the news brought to the limelight the controversy on bilateral agreements and the pressure by the “par condictio” (equal conditions between signatory countries) once again. Why Colombia should not have equal rights if the country has even changed its federal constitution in order to allow international traffickers to be judged in the US – as it happened last year when the Orejuela Brothers, from the former Cali Cartel, were sent to the North-American justice?

But the real focus of the problem is the meaning of these arrests. The arrested men are suspected to be part of a network operating in both countries and which has been organized in the undergrounds of Plan Colombia, and which is apparently leaded by a North-American civilian who is among the 600 people hired for the Plan. It is becoming more and more difficult to cover up the case. Senator Jairo Clopatofsky admits that, with these arrests, “A very important network is to be dismantled”. It is much like finding the foxes that were taking care of the chicken coop.