Billions of U.S. dollars later, Colombia gets the upper hand in battle on rebels, drugs

Plan Colombia appears to have brought more security to a nation the Pentagon once said was on the road to being a narco-state. But dissenters say the crackdown has a dark side involving human rights abuses.

By Chris Kraul,
Los Angeles Times
September 26, 2010

Reporting from Puerto Leguizamo, Colombia

Ten years after the U.S. began pouring billons of dollars into a largely military program in Colombia, the nation's armed forces have gotten the upper hand in the fight against leftist rebels and their powerful drug cartel allies.

Here on the Putumayo River 350 miles south of Bogota stands a bulked-up naval base with 40 patrol boats and more than 1,000 marines and soldiers. Air cover from Blackhawk helicopters, Brazilian-made Super Tucano bombers, and Israeli-produced Kfir fighter jets is available from the nearby Tres Esquinas air base.

Their mission is to deny FARC rebels, narcos and arms traffickers use of a corridor on Colombia's border with Peru and Ecuador.

"We're destroying the FARC's financial foundation and providing security to legal river traffic at the same time," said base commander marine Gen. Rafael Colon. "We are trying to make the presence of the state felt in places it wasn't before."

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