US special forces to help combat drug trafficking in Colombia's war-torn areas

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Colombia Reports

by Adriaan Alsema May 28, 2020


The United States embassy said Wednesday that American special forces will assist Colombia’s security forces in counter-narcotics operations in war-torn areas prioritized in the peace process.

The so-called Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB) will carry out joint missions in what President Ivan Duque calls “Future Zones,” regions historically abandoned by the state and controlled by the FARC until their demobilization in 2017.

Four of these five areas are also major coca growing regions where dissident FARC factions and other illegal armed groups maintain control over the drug trade with increased help of Mexican drug cartel emissaries.

. . .

US President Donald Trump announced these operations early last month as part of what Defense Secretary Mark Esper called a “whole-of-government approach to combating the flow of illicit drugs into the United States and protecting the American people from their scourge.”

Read more: https://colombiareports.com/us-special-forces-to-help-combat-drug-trafficking-in-colombias-war-torn-areas/

[Ford_Prefect]

1. More field testing for Special Operators.

At what point do we annex Columbia? Would it eventually become the 53rd state? (Y'know after Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands?)

[sandensea]

4. It would be like annexing Mexico - with 40% of its population and 100% of its problems.

Neocons prefer to keep it under military occupation instead, while making sure the yayo keeps flowing (up another 10% to a record 1,000 tons last year).

The neocons are very much of the Roman Empire school of foreign policy.

[The Mouth]

2. What could possibly go wrong?

[Miguelito Loveless]

3. So,

We’ll be murdering civilians again like in the 80s.

[Doug.Goodall]

5. Let's put the war into the war on drugs.

Anti-tank missiles are effective against low paid workers loading mamajuana into a trash compactor.

[Ford_Prefect]

6. They'll need ground attack air cover and anti-aircraft capabilities.

"The most sophisticated process when I was in Mexico was one of the cartels was buying commercial 727 aircraft and French-made Caravelles that could travel 570 mph," Mike Vigil, the former chief of international operations for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, told Business Insider in an interview.

"The only thing that could stay with [those aircraft] was a fighter jet, and each plane would carry about 15 metric tons of cocaine," Vigil added. "They landed them in the desert and if they lost the plane it was no big deal because they were buying them for about $800,000," an expense that could easily be made up by a single drug shipment.

"It's aircraft, commercial freighters, speedboats, you name it and they have it," Vigil said. "They never settle on one method of transportation or on one route. They're always exploring."

'El Chapo' Guzmán had more airplanes than the biggest airline in Mexico
Christopher Woody May 4, 2016, 8:21 AM
https://www.businessinsider.com/el-chapo-guzman-mexico-drug-trafficking-airplanes-2016-5?op=1