US embassy cable - 05BOGOTA1397

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BOGOTA 001397 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 
 
DEPT FOR INL/RM, INL/LP 
 
DEPT FOR WHA/AND 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SNAR, EFIN, KCRM, PTER, CO 
SUBJECT: NAS Monthly Report January 2005: 
 
1. (SBU) SUMMARY: In January, Colombian National Police 
(CNP) sprayed 15,723 hectares of coca and finalized plans 
for a large manual poppy eradication campaign to start in 
February in Narino. A Colombian Army helicopter carrying 
sixteen Counter-Narcotics (CD) Brigade soldiers and four 
crewmembers crashed, killing all aboard.  NAS and CNP Anti- 
Narcotics Police (DIRAN) participated in planning the second 
phase of an Operation Firewall combined arms exercise to 
combat go-fast boats.  NAS and CNP agreed to ARAVI's first 
ever flying-hour management program designed to make more 
efficient use of aircraft.  Carbineros Rural Mobile Police 
(EMCAR) reported that in 2004 their squadrons captured 1,639 
guerrillas and 275 narco-traffickers. Colombia's maritime 
ports received an excellent security assessment by the US 
Coast Guard.  End Summary. 
 
Eradication and Interdiction 
---------------------------- 
 
2. (U) During January, OV-10s operating from San Jose 
sprayed approximately 5,340 hectares of coca, while AT-802s 
operating from Tumaco sprayed approximately 9,953 hectares 
of coca.  The T-65 aircraft package sprayed approximately 
430 hectares of coca during this period while operating from 
Quibdo and Armenia, the first operations conducted by the 
program in this area.  This combined effort resulted in a 
total of approximately 15,723 hectares of coca sprayed 
during the month of January. 
 
3. (U) On January 13, a Plan Colombia UH-60L crashed during 
a night-time operation in the department of Narino, killing 
four crewmembers and 16 members of the Colombian Army 
Counter-Narcotics (CD) Brigade.  Accident investigators from 
the State Department, Colombian Army, Federal Aviation 
Administration, DynCorp, and the helicopter's manufacturer, 
Sykorsky quickly initiated an investigation.  At this time, 
the investigation is ongoing. 
 
4. (U) The CD Brigade destroyed 19 HCl laboratories, 
including 9 in the space of a week following the helicopter 
crash that killed their colleagues. 
 
5. (SBU) Eradication and COLAR aircraft were involved in one 
incident involving hostile fire during January, resulting in 
a total of 17 impacts for the month.  Eradication OV-10Ds 
received 14 impacts, while UH-1Ns received one impact.  A 
Plan Colombia UH-1N aircraft received two impacts during the 
same mission while serving as an escort helicopter for the 
Eradication aircraft. 
 
6. (U) During January, COLAR Plan Colombia helicopters 
continued to support CD Brigade troops and Eradication 
operations in Larandia and Tumaco, as well as a High Value 
Target mission in Apiay and training operations in 
Tolemaida.  This month saw Plan Colombia helicopters flying 
over 1,983 hours, while transporting 3,156 passengers and 
78,900 pounds of cargo. Forty-five medical evacuation 
missions were completed this month as well. 
 
7. (SBU) The Plan Colombia Helicopter Program supported U.S. 
Army Special Forces training operations in Tolemaida by 
providing airframes for air assault and fast-rope training 
this month.  In addition, the program began night vision 
goggle refresher training and instructor pilot qualification 
training with four Colombian National Police pilots, 
including two UH-60 pilots and two UH-1HII pilots.  This 
training greatly assists the National Police in their 
efforts to reconstitute their night vision goggle program. 
 
Air Bridge Denial 
----------------- 
 
8. (U) There was one Phase III event and one Law Enforcement 
end game during this period.  In January 2005, over 5200 
tracks were sorted over Colombia, of which 33 were declared 
Unidentified, Assumed Suspect (UAS) aircraft. 
 
Manual Poppy Eradication (DIRAN) 
 
------------------------------- 
 
9. (SBU) The Colombian national Police, Plan Colombia Office 
of the Presidencia, and NAS made preparations in January for 
a early February launch of a thirty-day manual poppy 
eradication campaign around Ipiales, Nario.  Eradication 
labor will be provided by 30 campesinos who will be guided 
and protected by the DIRAN's 26th company.  This is the same 
area where the 26th Company and the COLAR's Grupo CABAL 
concentrated manual poppy eradication operations in 2004, 
resulting in the eradication of over 1,000 hectares of 
poppy.  NAS has encouraged the GOC to focus manual 
eradication campaigns on poppy, where manual eradication 
sweeps are swifter and more efficient than in the coca 
fields.  Besides planning and logistical support, NAS also 
supplied GPS units, brush cutters, and overnight gear for 
the operation.  NAS also designed and duplicated fliers 
warning that Colombian asset seizure and forfeiture laws are 
now being applied to land where illicit crops are planted. 
Security forces will distribute these during this and other 
manual eradication campaigns to deter replanting. 
 
Firewall Exercise Planning Conference 
------------------------------------- 
10. (SBU) Representatives from the Colombian Navy, DIRAN, 
Air Force, UK Embassy, DEA, MILGP and NAS began planning the 
second Firewall Field Training Exercise that will be held 
April 4-14, near Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast. 
Exercise will test reactions of Firewall units against three 
separate scenarios, each simulating launching of narco go- 
fasts.  The newly installed Firewall communications network 
will also be tested during the exercise. 
 
CNP Aviation (ARAVI) 
-------------------- 
 
11. (U) The three largest components of ARAVI's fleet 
clocked 1,104 mission hours in January:  the UH-1H II 
helicopters flew 690 mission hours with an operational 
readiness rate of 82 percent, our Bell 212 helicopters flew 
221 mission hours with an operational readiness rate of 75 
percent, and our UH-60L helicopters flew 193 mission hours 
with an operational readiness rate of 77 percent.  NAS and 
ARAVI agreed to a flying hour program (the first in ARAVI's 
history) for 2005.  Construction of the new hangar complex 
at ARAVI's Guaymaral base is on schedule.  NAS/ARAVI hired a 
new safety advisor who will arrive at post in March. 
 
 
Law Enforcement/Public Security 
------------------------------- 
12. (U) One new Mobile Carabineros Squadron (EMCAR) and 200 
replacement policemen for the existing squadrons began 
training in Espinal in January.  To date, a total of 40 
Carabineros Squadrons have been trained. The Combat medics 
course also started in January with 49 students, 30 EMCAR, 
15 DIRAN, 1 GREAS (Colombian Navy), 1 Police Anti-Terrorism 
Reaction Unit (GRATE), and 2 others. 
 
13. (U) The CNP's Carbineros (EMCAR) reported their final 
results for CY2004.  Last year, EMCAR Squadrons captured 275 
narcotraffickers and 1,639 guerrillas (815 FARC/ELN & 824 
AUC).  The squadrons also captured 3,127 common criminals. 
They seized 1,655 weapons, 8,473 kgs of coca base, 46,600 
gallons of liquid precursors and 142,485 kgs of solid 
precursors.  Overall, EMCAR Squadrons and the new Municipio 
CNP units were largely responsible for the significant 
improvement in public security throughout rural Colombia. 
 
Port Security Program 
--------------------- 
 
14. (U) The US Coast Guard conducted an assessment of 
Colombia's international maritime port's compliance with the 
International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) code. 
Their assessment indicated security at Colombia's ports is 
substantially better than other ports in the region and 
specifically praised the cooperation between the port 
operators and the anti-narcotics police that is the essence 
of NAS's Port Security Program. 
 
Demand Reduction 
---------------- 
 
15. (U) In January NAS delivered computers to support the 
NGO Surgir based in Medellin.  Surgir is one of the largest 
and most effective private drug prevention organizations in 
Colombia.  The computers will enable them to expand and make 
more efficient their teacher training programs. 
 
Environment 
----------- 
 
16. (U) From January 16-26, the spray program carried out 
the first phase of the annual ground verification of coca 
eradication. Phase one covered the departments of Nario, 
Putumayo, Caqueta, and Meta and included evaluation of spray 
effectiveness, estimations of collateral damage, and soil 
sampling to test residuality of the spray mixture. 
Verifications are conducted by a broad, inter-institutional 
team which includes scientists from the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture, the GOC's Ministry of Environment, Housing and 
Territorial Development, the GOC's Institute of Agriculture 
and Husbandry, the National Directorate of Dangerous Drugs, 
as well as representatives from NAS, the INL Air Wing, and 
the Colombian National Police.  The Organization of American 
State's Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission's 
(CICAD) spray monitoring initiative also sent observers for 
the second phase of verification, which is currently 
underway in Norte de Santander. 
 
WOOD