Military Aid to Colombia

Plan Colombia, the controversial U.S.-backed military aid package passed in 2000 allegedly aimed at curbing drug production is generating widespread concern and criticism for fueling Colombia's civil war and spraying harmful chemicals over communities and ecosystems in the southeastern region. Recent fund allocations to protect Occidental Petroleum's oil pipeline in the conflict ridden Arauca province suggest that Plan Colombia is driven by the need to secure U.S. access to Colombian oil reserves.

The United States imports more oil from Colombia and its neighbors, Venezuela and Ecuador, than from all of the Persian Gulf. New US energy policy envisions greater reliance on Colombian oil. Multinational companies dominate the Colombian oil industry, with Occidental Petroleum (OXY) being the biggest US player in the region. Military aid has only worsened Colombia's cycle of violence, yet the need to secure access to oil is driving the United States' deeper into the Colombian civil war.

The proposed 2004 foreign aid bill contains almost $600 million in aid to Colombia, the vast majority of which is military aid. Starting last year, military aid to Colombia can be used for both counter-drug efforts-- mostly the aerial fumigation of drug crops-- and counterinsurgency. Since Plan Colombia's passage, the U.S. has given $2.5 billion to Colombia, with few tangible results and a growing trail of human rights abuses.

Pipeline Protection Or Corporate Welfare?

From the ever-evolving Washington 'justification' for U.S. involvement in Colombia-from the "War on Communism" to the "War on Drugs" to the "War on Terrorism"-U.S. foreign aid to Colombia has been great for Corporate America and deadly for the Colombian people. A major beneficiary of U.S. military aid to Colombia is one of Los Angeles' most infamous - Occidental Petroleum (OXY).

Occidental was a powerful force behind the passage of Plan Colombia and increased U.S. military aid to Colombia, spending over $9 million on direct lobbying and donating $1.5 million to federal campaigns between 1995 and 2000.

Testifying in support of the Plan before a US Congressional House Subcommittee on February 15, 2000, OXY Public Affairs Vice President Larry Meriage lobbied for more military security for the company's operations, stating that the Colombian military was "vastly under-armed."

© Amazon Watch.

Occidental Petroleum's oil fire in Cano Limon.

President Bush's latest request for further military aid to Colombia shows that US Colombia policy has been hijacked by OXY and and other energy corporations. At the center of Bush's 2004 aid package is up to $147 million appropriation to boost security for OXY's frequently bombed Caño Limón oil pipeline. The aid package constitutes an unprecedented public revelation of President Bush's shift from a strategy based on drug interdiction to counter-insurgency. The main beneficiary is OXY who would get more than a $4.50 dollar a barrel subsidy from American taxpayers while the U'wa and other local communities in the region suffer through further environmental devastation and increased violence.

The aid is intended to provide munitions, equipment, and training to the notorious 18th brigade, who has a history of collusion and active collaboration with paramilitary forces. Members of the brigade stand accused of the recent murder of a key witness to the 1998 Santo Domingo massacre.

However, OXY's Caño Limón oil reserves, which have been drilled since 1986, are declining, and the aid package is clear that the company-and the US government - have set their sites on the potential vast oil reserves in the region that includes the U'wa People's territory.

OXY's Legacy: Caño Limón Oil Spills To The Santo Domingo Massacre

Occidental Petroleum's existing Caño Limón pipeline is a telling tale of the human and environmental disaster that goes hand in hand with oil development in Colombia. Since the pipeline's construction in 1986, it has been attacked over 1000 times by guerrilla groups, spilling more than 2.9 million barrels of crude oil into the forest and rivers. Theses oil spills amount to eleven times the crude spilled by the Exxon Valdez. The Colombian Environmental Ministry estimates that at nearly 1,625 miles of river have been polluted by these spills.

Research shows that oil revenues from OXY's pipeline end up financing all sides of Colombia's civil war. To protect its operations, OXY relies heavily on the Colombian military; a notorious human rights violator with the worst record in the western hemisphere. According to Oil and Gas Journal, OXY paid $20 million for security in 1997, not including a dollar per barrel "war tax" levied by the Colombian government for military protection (costing the company roughly $180,000 per day). Even so, due to damage inflicted by guerrilla bombings, in 2001, Caño Limón pipeline remained inoperable for 266 days.

In 2000, OXY's Vice President Lawrence Meriage testified in the U.S. Congress that OXY is regularly shaken down" by both FARC and ELN guerrillas and "required to pay a 'war tax' to both groups or they will not be able to work."

In June of 2001, new evidence surfaced in a Colombian legal proceeding that exposed how OXY's insidious relationship with the Colombian military turned fatal. An investigation led by Colombia's Attorney General into the Santo Domingo massacre of 1998 called for the subpoena of three American pilots employed by AirScan for the alleged bombing of civilians. AirScan is a private security firm contracted by OXY since 1997 to protect its oil operations.

At Santo Domingo, the mutual interests of the Colombian military and Occidental Petroleum led to one of the country's deadliest attacks on civilians. As widely reported by the Los Angeles Times, Colombian military officials testified that AirScan provided the Colombian military with key strategic information gathered during their security work for OXY and helped coordinate the air attack using infrared and video equipment to pinpoint targets on the ground. OXY's compound also served as the staging ground for the attack, where strategy meetings were held with the military and AirScan. Evidence is also emerging that AirScan provided the military with the flight crew for the military plane that dropped the cluster bomb on the town.

The military bombing operation "targeted" supposed guerrillas, but killed 17 civilians, six of them children. No rebels were identified.

Both OXY and AirScan now face a lawsuit in U.S. courts over their roles in the massacre. The case, brought forth by the International Labor Rights Fund and the Center for Human Rights at Northwestern University School of Law, was filed April 24, 2003 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California under the Alien Tort Claims Act. A survivor of the massacre and key witness in the case stated, "As a family member of the victims, as a witness, and a survivor, I seek the truth, justice, and reparations for the damages that were caused to my family. You cannot imagine the pain that this incident has caused, the frightening remains of my loved ones burned, mutilated and almost impossible to recognize. I am here to ask you Occidental, why was your compound used to plan the bombing of my village? Please tell me, what was your role? Why was our village bombed? I believe I have the right to know exactly what happened."

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