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News :: International Relations |
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Washington Lends Muscle To Besieged Colombian Pipeline |
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by Katrin Dauenhauer
(No verified email address) |
02 Jul 2003
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"How is it that they are bringing in troops for oil and the rest of the country--nothing? It seems that the U.S. government is interested in taking oil, and that's it," said Arauca mayor Jorge Cedeño. |
WASHINGTON - The George W. Bush administration is planning to significantly expand U.S. commitments in Colombia, with a 2004 budget request for up to $147 million to protect a private oil pipeline in the South American country.
”The Colombian pipeline protection program marks a new rhetorical and practical approach to U.S. involvement in the Andean region, under which the protection of strategic resources combines with anti-narcotics and anti-terrorism objectives to legitimize an expanded U.S. military presence,” states a new 20-page report (http://www.wola.org/Colombia/monitor_may03_summary.htm) by the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).
The administration's pipeline protection plan would provide munitions, training and assistance to two elite Colombian army battalions.
Up to 800 soldiers will be deployed to guard the first 75 miles of the 480-mile Cano Limon-Covenas oil pipeline, running through Colombia's northeastern province of Arauca. Cano Limon is jointly operated by the Colombian state oil company Ecopetrol and the U.S. oil company Occidental Petroleum.
According to Occidental, the pipeline has been attacked by rebel groups more than 700 times since its construction in 1986, with the ruptures resulting in an overall spillage of 2.2 million barrels of oil into the surrounding ecosystem.
However, in light of the brutality of Columbia's 39-year-old civil war, which has forced more than 300,000 Colombians to flee to neighboring countries like Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela in the last four years, critics question the administration's policy priorities.
”How is it that they are bringing in troops for oil and the rest of the country--nothing? It seems that the U.S. government is interested in taking oil, and that's it,” said Arauca mayor Jorge Cedeño.
According to WOLA's report, ”Protecting the Pipeline: The U.S. Military Mission Expands,” it is also disturbing that U.S. government funds are being used to support an abusive foreign military so it can protect the resources of private companies.
”By dedicating U.S. funds to the specific purpose of protecting a private oil pipeline, the United States is further drawn into civil conflict in Colombia, a conflict that is essentially about major resources like oil. As infrastructure lies at the heart of the conflict, the U.S. policy is likely to aggravate the situation,” said Kimberly Stanton, WOLA's deputy director, in an interview yesterday.
Beyond the grave human rights implications, WOLA sees the risk that the United States will provide foreign military assistance that--lacking clearly defined goals, a definition of success, or an exit strategy--is more likely to increase than to decrease.
”Colombia's internal armed conflict has been going on for 40 years and it is not winnable on the battlefield. By providing resources that are used in counter-insurgency measures, the U.S. is drawn into a conflict that is not solvable by military means,” Stanton said. ”The fact that armed forces supported by the U.S. have not broken links with illegal armed groups responsible for the majority of atrocities in the country is extremely alarming.”
In addition, the policy raises concerns regarding the transparency of U.S. government interests and the role of the private sector in Colombia and the Andean region.
”The State Department increasingly argues that its goal is to provide security for all Colombians, and that protecting the Cano Limon Pipeline is part of an integrated package that includes aerial fumigation of coca and poppy, as well as counter-insurgency assistance in order to bring about a safe and stable Colombia. Despite congressional requests for more transparency, it is unclear how much money will be spent or how many years the mission will take,” the report says.
Since the introduction of the 1.3-billion-dollar Plan Colombia aid package in 2000, the discussion of U.S. engagement has centered almost exclusively on the drug war and has hardly touched on questions of counter-insurgency and U.S. trade interests.
U.S. energy and corporate interests moved to the center of attention in February 2002, when U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Anne Patterson admitted that the pipeline plan reached beyond the anti-narcotics mission to which the United States was limited at that time.
”Colombia has the potential to export more oil to the United States, and now more than ever, it's important for us to diversify our sources of oil,” Patterson said in the wake of Sep. 11, 2001.
Colombian crude represents more than two percent of total U.S. imports and, depending on the year, ranks between number five and 10 as a foreign oil supplier.
In the period of 1996-2000, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador together exported the same average amount of crude to the United States as the Persian Gulf States combined--2.1 million barrels per day (bpd), or 20.1 percent of U.S. annual net oil imports, according to numbers derived from the United States Energy Information.
While this makes the Andes important for U.S. energy interests, it equally increases the potential of conflict in Colombia.
”Oil, like cocaine, provides revenues that enhance the armed actors' ability to participate in the war; the war in turn, provides them with opportunities for profit. Gasoline, literally, fuels the conflict,” the report states.
By expanding the U.S. mission in Colombia from fighting drugs to protecting private oil companies' infrastructure, Washington's pipeline assistance project is likely to become a major factor in the country's civil strife, according to the report.
This, the report states, will aggravate rather than bring an end to the conflict.
”The United States, by betting on Colombian oil, has stepped into the heart of the war,” the report says. ”It is willfully becoming a protagonist in Colombia's war, and the costs for both countries will be human as well as financial.”
Copyright 2003 IPS
http://www.ips.org |
See also:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0216-03.htm
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