US embassy cable - 04BOGOTA12689

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 BOGOTA 012689 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/14/2014 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, SNAR, MASS, PREF, EAID, KJUS, CO 
SUBJECT: PLAN COLOMBIA IMPLEMENTATION ROUND-UP, NOVEMBER 
2004 
 
Classified By: Ambassador William B. Wood for reasons 1.4 (b) 
and (d). 
 
1. (U) The following is an update of Plan Colombia-related 
activities reported during November 2004. 
 
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DOJ/JSRP 
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2. (U) The Justice Sector Reform Program (JSRP) coordinated 
several training courses during November.  They included the 
following: "Investigator as a Witness" (in Bogota, Medellin, 
Cali, Bucaramanga, Pereira, Tunja and Manizales); "Criminal 
Trial Advocacy ) Judge's Training" (in Bogota for 40 
judges); "Criminal Trial Advocacy" (two courses in Bogota for 
120 prosecutors and 60 investigators); "Police Discipline, 
Ethics, and Transparency" (in Bucaramanga for 40 Police 
Commanders); an "Expert Witness Course" (in Bogota for 20 
laboratory forensic examiners); and a "Train the Trainer" 
course (in Bogota for 35 potential new 
prosecutors/instructors of the Criminal Trial Advocacy 
program). 
 
3. (U) JSRP also coordinated an observational visit to U.S. 
Courts in Washington D.C. for 12 prosecutors and one judge; 
set up an oral trial presentation and simulation at the 
Twelfth National Congress of Legal Medicine and Forensic 
Science for 200 forensic experts and medical examiners; sent 
4 Colombian justice officials to the DOJ Cyber Crime Regional 
Workshop in Lima, Peru; and completed a one-week expert 
evaluation of the status of Colombia's evidence rooms and 
evidence procedures. 
 
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DOJ/ICITAP 
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4. (U) During the week of November 1, ICITAP sponsored the 
visit of chief medical examiners from Wayne County, Michigan, 
and Cook County, Illinois.  They gave presentations at the 
12th Annual Forensic Science Conference on the role of the 
medical examiner's office in the accusatory justice system. 
The presentations included a "mock trial" practical exercise. 
 
5. (U) In November, ICITAP provided the equipment and 
technical assistance to start a wireless fingerprint network 
within and between the National Police - DIJIN and the 
Institute for Legal Medicine.  The network will allow 
investigators at a crime scene to send fingerprints obtained 
at the scene via a wireless transmission to the Police 
Fingerprint Archive.  The Institute can now also wirelessly 
transmit the fingerprints of unidentified cadavers to the 
Police Fingerprint Archive for possible identification.  The 
system should reduce the time for fingerprint examinations, 
especially in critical cases involving human rights abuses 
and violent crimes. 
 
6. (U) In November, ICITAP conducted "Investigator as a 
Witness" training for all Judicial Police Investigators in 
Armenia, Quindio Department.  So far this year, ICITAP has 
trained 385 Judicial Police Investigators.  In December, 
ICITAP will complete training in Pereira, Risaralda 
Department, and Manizales, Caldas Department.  The training 
is designed to help the Judicial Police transition to the 
accusatory system of justice that will be implemented in 
Bogota, Armenia, Pereira, and Manizales in January 2005. 
 
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MILGROUP 
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7. (C) Colombian Military Commander General Ospina said that 
following changes among the Flag-Grade Officers he will 
establish a joint command on the north coast consisting of 
the First Division, Caribbean fleet assets, Combatant Air 
Commands, and riverine elements.  The command will be led by 
an army commander, probably the division commander.  General 
Ospina is also planning to create three joint entities in the 
capital region: a joint intelligence command, a joint 
MEDEVAC/Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) unit, and the Joint 
Special Operations Command.  He will name a General Officer 
to head each organization and is considering appointing 
General Freddy Padilla de Leon as their first line reporting 
General Officer.  Ospina will staff the joint Special 
Operations Command with one General Officer, three colonels, 
five lieutenant colonels, and 13 other officers and 
non-commissioned officers.  The command will be located on 
the grounds of the Infantry or Cavalry School. 
 
8. (C) Brigadier General Gustavo Matamoros Camacho said that 
Civil Affairs/PSYOPS activities are beginning to change 
civilian perceptions of the military throughout Arauca. 
Support actions by battalion commanders, such as Lieutenant 
Colonel Francisco Medina Corredor in Saravena, are gaining a 
civilian support base.  Activities like Medical Readiness 
Training exercises, soccer games/tournaments sponsored by and 
on military installations, children's activities and parties, 
and radio broadcasts and military-civilian contact are 
beginning to show results. The mayor of Saravena, who won the 
election while jailed under suspicion of being a member of 
the ELN, is now working closely with Lt. Col. Medina to 
affect change with the population of Saravena.  The efforts 
of the deployed Special Forces Operation Detachment Alpha in 
assisting with recent activities were highlighted by both 
BGen Matamoros and Lt. Col. Medina as being force 
multipliers.  BGen Matamoros has forged a strong relationship 
with the Governor of Arauca and both realize that 
civil-military cooperation in Arauca is a long term project 
that must be sustained by the GOC and COLMIL.  Discussions at 
the Second Division in Bucaramanga also indicated that the 
Information Operations campaign was as effective as military 
operations in neutralizing the influence of illegal armed 
groups. 
 
9. (C) A COLAF commander signed a sole source justification 
letter to accompany a letter of request for pricing and 
availability on two C-130 aircraft for sale by Evergreen 
Aircraft Sales and Leasing Company.  The paperwork was 
submitted via security assistance channels.  The most 
effective method for the COLAF to acquire these systems is 
through security assistance funding and acquisition.  A 
third-party company, Hoover Aviation, may purchase the 
C-130s, then perform maintenance/avionics upgrades, and 
re-sell them to the COLAF.  This acquisition will increase 
the strategic lift fleet by 25 percent. 
 
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NAS 
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10. (U) Asset forfeiture has long been a torturously 
bureaucratic and ineffective process in Colombia, reserved 
only for the strongest cases against major narcotics 
traffickers.  In a little-noticed September press conference 
in the Department of Santander, President Uribe announced 
that in cases involving the cultivation of illicit narcotics, 
asset seizure and forfeiture would be applied to small farms 
as well as large ones.  Since that announcement, the 
Colombian National Police (CNP) have taken several steps to 
make the President's warning a reality.  The CNP currently 
has plans to implement the asset forfeiture process as a 
potent complement to forced eradication. 
 
11. (U) On November 24, the SIJIN (Judicial and Investigative 
Police) conducted a workshop on asset forfeiture and seizure 
to brief Boyaca municipal police units on legal requirements 
for building strong cases.  These include firm identification 
of title and possession of the plot, proper chain of custody 
techniques for crop samples, testing by an established 
criminal laboratory, and coordination with several GOC 
agencies, including the Fiscalia, Direccion Nacional de 
Estupifacientes (DNE - Colombia's "Drug Czar" equivalent 
agency), and the Augustin Codazzi Geographic Institute.  NAS 
is working with departmental police -- who are now manually 
eradicating coca in western Boyaca -- to start an asset 
forfeiture case in each coca-growing municipality.  NAS and 
the CNP District Commander for the zone recently met with 
police units and local mayors to explain the program and NAS 
will soon be providing GPS units and other equipment to 
facilitate the process.  GOC-led manual eradication projects 
underway in Llorente (Narino) and Orito (Putumayo) also plan 
to start at least one case in each area to alter the 
risk/reward ratio for illicit crop growers. 
 
12. (U) Through leaflets and radio interviews, the CNP is 
spreading the word that land seizure awaits any who risk 
planting coca on their land.  Examples of actual cases in 
each growing region will undoubtedly be the most effective 
force multiplier, and may even result in growers uprooting 
their own crops in advance of the arrival of law enforcement. 
 Post has previously reported on the many drawbacks of manual 
eradication, which include hazardous, difficult working 
conditions and a tempo that is unable to outpace replanting. 
Post will encourage the GOC to incorporate an active, 
strategic asset forfeiture program into manual eradication 
programs so that the CNP garners some advantage from an 
inherently risky activity. 
 
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RSO 
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13. (U) VIP Personal Protection Program:  Weapons for this 
program have been received and will be distributed to the 
personal protection details of the President, Vice President, 
Minister of Defense, and the Mayor of Bogota.  Some will be 
held back for training purposes. 
 
14. (U) Anti-Kidnapping Initiative:  Ten persons assigned to 
GAULA units completed a two-week "train the trainer" course 
and will be assistant instructors when Crisis Response 
Training (CRT) commences in early January.  Dates for the 
next CRT course have not been confirmed at this time, but it 
will probably take place in early January 2005. 
 
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USAID 
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15. (U) Ambassador Wood and Foreign Minister Barco formalized 
the FY04 obligation of USD 116.7 million in USAID 
humanitarian and socio-economic assistance.  To date, the USG 
has allocated a total of USD 458 million, including USD 123 
million to support a more responsive and accountable 
democracy, USD 206 million to promote economic and social 
alternatives to illicit crop production, and USD 129 million 
to provide economic and social opportunities to displaced 
persons and members of other vulnerable groups. 
 
16. (U) Under its Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) program, 
USAID is assisting the Colombian government with the design 
of a contingency plan to support former child combatants in 
the event of large-scale demobilizations.  Training for local 
authorities has been undertaken in eight municipalities and 
will eventually cover at least five additional localities. 
To date, USAID has assisted over 2,000 former child 
combatants through activities such as psychological 
counseling, education, and vocational skills development. 
 
17. (U) USAID Alternative Development Program partner Land O' 
Lakes signed a grant agreement for USD 100,000 with a local 
cooperative, COLANTA, to establish milk collection centers 
(MCCs) in the municipalities of Yarumal, Valdivia, Briceno, 
Caceres, Taraza, and Caucasia in the Bajo Cauca region of the 
department of Antioquia.  In the initial phase, 20 MCCs will 
be established with a daily average capacity of 750 liters 
each.  Each tank will serve between two and ten producers on 
nearby farms.  The average investment per MCC is USD 5,000, 
of which 80 percent will be financed directly by program 
beneficiaries through bank loans facilitated by the GOC's 
Agricultural and Livestock Financial Fund (FINAGRO).  The 
remaining 20 percent will be financed with grant resources 
from USAID's Dairy Development Program. 
WOOD