U.S. Aid to Colombia's Military: The Oil Connection
Klare, Michael T.
This past summer, Congress approved a S1.3 billion I emergency military aid package destined mainly for Colombia. As a result, that country became the third largest recipient of U.S. assistance...
...Not only is the guerrilla conflict cutting into Colombia's current petroleum output, but it is also frightening away investors and thus reducing the country's long-term contribution to global oil production...
...From the period beginning in 1997 to 2020, U.S...
...public...
...Venezuela is nd not just now the number one foreign supplier to the United States...
...economy...
...assistance (after Israel and Egypt...
...To protect the oil industry, the Colombian government has expanded the military and deployed much of it in the major producing regions and along key pipeline routes...
...The government hopes to increase this amount significantly in the years ahead, so as to stimulate economic growth and finance development projects in Michael T Klare is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., and author of Resource Wars: Global Geopolitics in the 21st Century (Metropolitan Books, forthcoming...
...A version of this article previously appeared in Alternet 20 NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICASREPORT ON OIL Transandino oil pipe blown up in 1995 by the FARC in Putumayo, southern Colombia...
...The fact is, however, that the greatest threat posed by the guerrillas to stability in Colombia is not their involvement in the drug trade, but rather their attacks on economic targets, especially the oil industry...
...If the United States assumes the costs for military operations in the south, moreover, the government will be able to shift more of its own resources in the northeast, where the oil fields are located...
...All this-and not the drug problem aloneexplains the Clinton Administration's decision to substantially boost U.S...
...aid package followed this reasoning...
...Between 1982 and early 1999, for example, Sthe ELN attacked the pipeline from Cano Lim6n to the coast a total of 586 times, causing the spill of over 1.6 "million baels of oil...
...With little attention from the U.S...
...But there is another reason for U.S...
...And they they have discouraged foreign oil companies S'from exploring for and developing new fields in the country...
...Oil is now Colombia's leading (legal) source of export income, generating about $3 billion to $4 billion per year in foreign sales...
...And the United to the States will need all of the imported ed Forces...
...In an unusually candid report, Newsweek revealed last year that Occidental was working assiduously to secure passage of the $1.3 billion aid package...
...sis on oil imports from other regions, especially Latin America-with priority on Colombia and Venezuela...
...Despite this, attacks on Colombian oil installations appear to be increasing...
...dependence on Mid East oil...
...oil it can get...
...This in itself is cause for concern...
...But even worse: If Washington seeks to diminish the threat to Colombian oil production as well as to curb the flow of illicit narcotics, we are likely to become involved in a much deeper-and more extended-military effort in Colombia than anyone in the outgoing or incoming administrations has yet admitted...
...Obviously, the Clinton Administration had broader strategic objectives in Colombia than it disclosed to the U.S...
...aid that is not openly discussed by U.S...
...On top of this, the Colombian government must fight the drug traffickers and protect the oil fields...
...The oil companies are paying a S1-per-barrel "war tax" on current production and, in the case of BP, subsidizing new military units...
...Almost all of the rhetoric employed by the Clinton Administration to rally support for the $1.3 billion U.S...
...S:Colombia's oil industry is also particularly vulnerable to attack: The country's two main producing areas-the : CuSiana/Cupiagua field in north-central Colombia (managed largely by BP), and the Cano Lim6n field in the -northeast (managed by Occidental)-are far away from major government centers...
...The FARC and ELN regularly attack oil installations and Pipelines...
...Colombian oil exports to the United States have also risen sharply, and today Colombia is this country's seventh largest supplier of petroleum By themselves, Colombia's oil deliveries to the United States are not critical to the U.S...
...decades ahead...
...And while conditions in Venezuela's oil fields seem, for now, to be relatively stable, this is hardly the case for Colombia...
...Not surprisingly, Occidental Petroleum-which operates largely in the northeast, far from the coca-producing areas in the south-was one of the major proponents of the Administration's proposal...
...Beginning in 1993, the Clinton Administration made the diversification of U.S...
...officials tend to emphasize the threat to internal security in Colombia from drug cartels and guerrillas said to be protecting the traffickers' coca-growing operations...
...For the past ten years, the main rebel groups-the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Lberation Army (ELN)-have waged a relentless war of attrition against Colombian oil operations, especially those linked to foreign producers like British Petroleum (BP) and U.S.-based Occidental Petroleum...
...oil supplies a major strategic objective...
...military aid to Colombia...
...Department of Energy, Colombian oil production rose from only 100,000 barrels per day in the early 1980s to approximately 844,000 in early 1999...
...In 1997, he reported that "we are...undergoing a fundamental shift in our reliance on imported oil away from the Middle East...
...aid is needed to enable the Colombian government to overpower the guerrillas and other armed groups that protect illicit the drug drug trafficking...
...But the principal items in the package-30 UH-60 Blackhawk troopcarrying helicopters, 33 refurbished UH-1N "Huey" helicopters and a number of P-3 spy planes--will significantly enhance government mobility and intelligence throughout the country, not just in the coca-producing regions...
...To get the oil to refineries and overseas markets, moreover, the producers must pump it through lengthy pipelines...
...These facilities are located in orhnear guerrilla-infested areas...
...Other suppliers-notably those located in the Persian Gulf area-produce far larger quantities of petroleum...
...Just as Washington has always placed a high priority on protecting the oil flow from the Middle East, it now seeks to ensure the security of oil supplies from South America...
...This priority was clearly evident in President Clinton's annual reports on national security strategy...
...aid is also needed, it is said, to strengthen democratic institutions in Colombia at a time of great internal tur moil...
...But a score of wars in the Middle East have made the United States leery of depending heavily on Persian Gulf supplies...
...press, Colombia has emerged in recent years as one of the major oil producers in the Western Hemisphere...
...In justifying this largess, Clinton Administration officials contended that substantial U.S...
...Colombia oblem- could become a major supplier of petroleum to the United States in the urrent U.S...
...According to the U.S...
...officials: a worry that the turmoil in Colombia will undercut Colombian oil production and hamper White House efforts to reduce U.S...
...oil consumption is expected to rise from 18 to 25 million barrels per day...
...By attacking the oil industry, the guerrillas aim to stifle economic growth and thereby undermine the government...
...These attacks have cost the govem- ment and the oil companies millions of dollars and inflict- ed significant damage on the country's oil infrastructure...
...the countryside-projects considered essential if the govemrment is to overcome the rural poverty that fuels both guerrilla activity and illicit drug trafficking...
...This led the White House to place increased emphaPetroleum--and not just the drug problem-explains the current U.S...
...Obviously, this must present a very troubling picture to security analysts in Washington...
...In defending the aid package, Administration officials insisted that the U.S.-backed military effort will focus in the southeast, where most of the coca plantations and cocaine laboratories are said to be located...
...package to the Colombian Armed Forces...
Vol. 34 • January 2001 • No. 4
