U.S. Citizens "High Caliber Hostages" Americans Fighting, Dying, Captured --
U.S. Considering Military Response Against Marxist Guerrillas
February 21, 2003
By Toby Westerman
Copyright 2003 International News Analysis Today
www.inatoday.com
War fever against Iraq has submerged reports of America's growing commitment to the increasingly bitter fight against Marxist guerrilla armies operating in Colombia, South America, a region long considered "America's backyard."
Over 500 U.S. advisors are deployed in Colombia in both anti-drug and anti-guerrilla operations.
The Colombian communist revolutionaries define U.S. advisors as "military objectives," and the revolutionaries recently inflicted an "unprecedented" blow to the Colombian government with the capture and murder of U.S. citizens, according to Le Figaro, an internationally respected, right-of-center, French news daily.
The Colombian army and its U.S. advisors are facing two major Marxist guerrilla armies: the 17,000 strong Armed Revolutionary Force of Colombia (FARC), and the National Liberation Army (ELN) comprising 4,500 fighters in a civil war which has continued for 39 years.
The murder of one Colombian and one American and the capture of three other Americans received relatively little coverage in the U.S. The Colombian news daily El Tiempo, however, described the captured Americans as "high caliber hostages," who would be used as a "means …denouncing the meddling of the United States in the Colombian conflict," Le Figaro stated.
The five were on an "anti-drug" mission, and shot down over rebel-held territory. The Colombian press is speculating that the Americans were CIA operatives, Le Figaro reported.
No official statement about the capture of the three Americans has come from the FARC, but intercepted radio transmissions indicate that the three are in the hands of the communist guerrilla band, said Le Figaro.
The U.S. is considering direct military action to regain the captured Americans, according to a recent Reuter's report.
Marxist rebels do not appear to be alone in their struggle to overthrow the Colombian government. Bogota has long suspected pro-Marxist Hugo Chavez' government of sheltering Colombian revolutionaries, and Cuba makes no secret of its solidarity with the FARC and ELN.
Colombian officials assert that the FARC is aided by members of the Irish Republican Army who provide instruction in bomb making and urban warfare.
The rebels are apparently quick learners - much of the world, including Europe and Latin America is shocked at the ferocity of the urban guerrilla terror unleashed against the Colombian government.
The bombing campaign targets civilians as well as the police and military, and uses a form of explosive estimated to be "ten times more powerful than dynamite," reported Le Figaro.
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