Beginning in August 2002, U.S. military
assistance to Colombia, which until then had been limited to combating
the illegal drug trade, has included money to protect an oil pipeline used
by Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum. U.S. Special Forces are currently
training Colombian soldiers in counter-insurgency tactics in order to defend
the pipeline from guerrilla bombings.
This issue of WOLA's Colombia Monitor
explains how Arauca province, the center of Occidental's installations
and increasingly the focus of U.S. and Colombian military operations, has
become Colombia's most violent region. The government's extraordinary security
measures in Arauca have not only violated fundamental rights of the inhabitants,
but have also failed to bring peace and stability to the region. In fact,
the security situation has deteriorated and the number of illegal armed
actors has grown.
This issue of the Colombia Monitor also examines the historic role that oil has played in Colombia's war, and how armed actors of all stripes have used oil and gasoline to finance their violent campaigns. Guerrillas extort oil companies in the eastern plains, while in the middle Magdalena valley, paramilitaries steal gasoline and sell it on the black market. For years, the Colombian armed forces have dedicated much of their limited resources to guarding pipelines and oil installations at the expense of establishing territorial control and protecting citizens from attacks by armed groups.
Oil, like cocaine, is one of the resources that fuel the Colombian war. By attempting to protect an oil pipeline, the United States risks being dragged into a conflict that is more complex and deep-rooted than most policymakers in the United States and even Colombia fully realize. What started as an open-ended but drug-centered Plan Colombia under President Bill Clinton has been transformed by the Bush administration into an ever more sprawling mission that lacks clearly defined goals, a definition of success, or an exit strategy. The choices made now regarding escalating assistance will limit the options available to policymakers in both countries in the future.
This Monitor also examines the rapidly expanding role of private military contractors working for the State and Defense Departments, and explains how their lack of accountability contributes to human rights violations. The Santo Domingo incident, in which a Colombian air force unit bombed a town and killed seventeen people in 1998, occurred with the participation of a Florida-based aerial surveillance contractor that had recently worked for Occidental.
Events in Ecuador also bode ill for peace and human rights, as Colombia's conflict spills across the border. Ecuador's northern regions, also oil-rich, are becoming more violent as armed actors are drawn by the prospect of controlling the area's material resources.
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