CIP Memorandum: The U.S. military presence in Colombia, February 26, 2003
MEMORANDUM
February 26, 2003
To: Interested Colleagues
From: Ingrid Vaicius, Associate, Center for International Policy
Re: The U.S. military presence in Colombia
~snip~
Last year, the Bush Administration began widening the scope of its military assistance mission in Colombia. In August, Congress approved an administration request to allow all past and present anti-drug aid to be used against guerrillas and paramilitaries. In November, President Bush signed a secret order, National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD) 18, which broadened several of the American military's guidelines in Colombia, particularly with regard to intelligence-sharing.
In mid-January, a contingent of sixty U.S. Special Forces arrived in the conflictive department of Arauca in northeastern Colombia, where they are to train the Colombian Army in an effort to protect the Caño Limón-Coveñas oil pipeline. These trainers' guidelines allow them to accompany their Colombian military counterparts outside the perimeters of military bases, but prohibit their presence in an area if there is a significant likelihood of combat.
While U.S. law gives the executive branch a good deal of freedom to deploy troops in such "operations other than war," the U.S. Congress has expressed concern about "mission creep" - the possibility that U.S. personnel may find themselves embroiled in Colombia's conflict. As a result, a provision that first appeared in the 2000 "Plan Colombia" aid package, and which has been renewed each year through 2003, sets a maximum of 400 U.S. military personnel and 400 U.S. citizen contractors who can be in Colombia at any given time. The law adds, "no United States Armed Forces personnel or United States civilian contractor employed by the United States will participate in any combat operation in connection with assistance made available by this Act for Colombia".
In strict legal terms, however, this "troop cap" provision does not cover all U.S. personnel. The language of the law only applies the cap to U.S. personnel in Colombia "in support of Plan Colombia" - the 2000 counter-drug initiative supported with funding from the State Department's anti-narcotics bureau.
Many of the Bush Administration's military-aid initiatives - in particular, the pipeline protection program - are not anti-drug programs, nor are they paid for with State Department anti-drug funds. They are not considered part of "Plan Colombia" - so the troop cap, in its current form, would not strictly apply to the U.S. military personnel in Colombia to carry out these programs.
U.S. officials have told members of Congress informally that they will nonetheless continue to obey the caps of 400 each. The administration's required quarterly reports to Congress on the U.S. presence indicate that the limit has not been exceeded. The last report claimed that there were 208 military personnel and 279 contract workers in Colombia on January 13, 2003; on November 13, 2002, the previous report cited 267 military personnel and 270 contractors.
While the law allows the president to waive the troop cap for 90 days if involvement in hostilities is likely, it states that even a formal waiver is unnecessary in the case of search-and-rescue operations like the one currently underway in Caquetá. While the current operation pushes the number of military personnel above 400, the administration is not legally bound even to notify Congress. "We informally told Congress about the search-and-rescue personnel that would be going down," explained State Department Spokesman Philip Reeker on February 25, but "no formal notification or waiver is required because the legislation makes quite clear that emergency personnel like the search-and-rescue personnel don't fall under that category."
More:
http://www.ciponline.org/colombia/03022601.htm
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