Page80

May 28, 2001

Plan Ecuador Brings Troops
and Development
to Colombia Border Region

by Ronald J. Morgan

With the force of Plan Colombia baring down on Colombia's nearby coca producing state of Putumayo, the United States is betting on military and development assistance to soften the ill effects to Ecuador's northern border. The first dollars of an $8 million Agency for International Development (AID) program began flowing in December and will soon have roads, drinking water projects and bridges under construction in Ecuador's three northern provinces: Esmeraldas, Carchi and Sucumbios. At the same time Ecuadorian soldiers are being transferred from the southern border to the north and will soon inhabit a series of new military bases.

The United States plans to funnel $12 million to military and police units this year followed by $19 million more if the Bush-sponsored $882.29 million Andean Regional Initiative is passed later this year. U.S. aid to Ecuador is escalating rapidly. The Center for International Policy (CIP), a non-governmental agency that tracks U.S. assistance, says total U.S. aid to Ecuador doubled with the signing of the Plan Colombia aid package in July, 2000, reaching $21.2 million.

And if the Bush Administration's Andean Regional Initiative is approved by Congress later this year, aid will nearly double again to $39 million in 2002. Other narcotics and economic assistance is expected to push total aid to Ecuador channeled through the State Department to $76.48 million in 2002. This compares with $143.48 for Bolivia, $206.16 million for Peru and $399 million for Colombia. The Pentagon's 2002 aid for the region has yet to be presented.
A draft report to Congress, which explained the Bush Foreign Relations Authorization Act budget presented on April 9, says the funds will go for U.S. training and assistance to the police, army special forces, aviation and naval units. Funding will also provide new communications equipment, maintenance support for helicopters, new vehicles and facility construction. The Ecuadorian Defense Ministry also plans to purchase new helicopters and Ecuadorian-built patrol boats.

In once sleepy Lago Agrio, where long-battling Colombian leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries often cross the border to rest and partake of its bars and brothels, there will soon be a beefed-up military base and a new police facility. Ecuadorian Special Forces units have begun patrolling the town and surrounding border area and soon a network of anti-drug checkpoints will be tightening control of the chemical, drug and arms smuggling in the region. While the planned influx of millions of dollars in U.S. assistance for the long neglected border area is welcome, Ecuadorian civil society groups who fear being engulfed by the Colombian conflict are eyeing the accompanying military build-up warily.

"They're planning a Plan Ecuador," said Luis Ulcuango, vice-president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nations (CONAIE), at a recent meeting of international human rights groups in Lago Agrio to discuss the effects of militarization along the Ecuadorian border. "We don't know what kind of plan they're preparing." The CONAIE opposed then-President Jamil Mahaud's concession of an anti-drug Forward Operating Location (FOL) base in Manta to the United States in 1999, but lost a constitutional challenge to the contract in January of this year. "The government of Ecuador is on its knees with regard to the United States, all because it receives credits," he complained.

But Ecuadorian Defense Secretary Hugo Unda says Ecuador's build-up on the border is needed to increase security. "We have to be concerned about what could happen in these provinces," Unda stressed in an interview. "We have an existing presence in the three provinces and we are planning to build new bases and strengthen existing ones. That includes increasing the number of troops." Unda said that the Ecuadorian military is most interested in using its portion of U.S. assistance to purchase helicopters. "The military units need mobility. The amount of helicopters will depend on the amount of assistance."

U.S. officials in Ecuador are downplaying the extent of the military assistance, saying that most of it is a continuation of anti-drug efforts that have been underway for years. "What we're going to see when this $12 million comes through," said a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Quito, "is higher levels of funding expanding now, even to providing equipment that they need in terms of communications and transportation. But it's not an about face, it's just kind of an amplification of what we're already doing,"

He cites the creation of the police training school at Carcelan, a ten-year project that has cost some $2 million. Also, during the past two years the U.S. Customs Service created, at a cost of $1.5 million, the Special Anti-Drugs Group (GEMA) to combat drug smuggling and funded the newly-opened $2 million customs checkpoint at Baeza, on the Sucumbios-Quito highway.

The United States also supports the operation of the anti-drug trafficking Police Intelligence Center (CICC) and plans to boost Ecuador's port inspection capabilities. In addition, some $65 million is being spent to lengthen the airstrip and make other improvements to the FOL base at Manta, which will pave the way for AWACS surveillance aircraft and in-flight tankers to begin operations in October. The number of U.S. personnel stationed at Manta could climb as high as 400.

The Pentagon, through the U.S. Southern Command (SouthCom), has long maintained close ties with the Ecuadorian military. U.S. Special Forces worked as peacekeepers on Ecuador's border during Operation Safe Border, a multinational peace effort following the 1995 border war with Peru. In fact, U.S. Special Forces regularly train in Ecuador and in June SouthCom troops will be in Ecuador for a Fuerzas Unidas humanitarian and peacekeeping training mission involving military personnel from most Latin American nations. SouthCom has also recently stepped up its goodwill humanitarian donations by contributing $500,000 in public safety equipment to Ecuador and $300,000 in humanitarian aid to the Ecuadorian Red Cross.

Gonzalo Lopez Maranon, Catholic Bishop of Sucumbios province, which includes Lago Agrio, said the military aspect of the border plan is worrisome. "We profoundly hope that the armed forces know what they are doing with this military presence. It could appear to be a great big military operation in a certain sense, but with an excessive military presence, little efficiency and a lot of trouble for the Ecuadorian population" (see, Ecuador Human Rights Group Condemns Plan Colombia).

Most of the planned development and environmental projects are centered in indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian regions near the border. Earlier this year Colombian right-wing paramilitaries displaced eight Ecuadorian indigenous communities. Also, economic conditions have deteriorated since Ecuador switched to the U.S. dollar making it less attractive for Colombians to purchase goods in Ecuadorian border towns. Refugees also sporadically flow over the border, with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees officially listing 1,602 refugees and 151 asylum seekers in Ecuador at the end of last year.

The isolated Awa indigenous reserve, which borders the Colombian state of Nariño, will receive special attention. Eighty-six kilometers of road are to be improved between the towns of Tufino and Chical. In addition, 15 bridges are to be constructed -- five vehicle, four cattle and eleven pedestrian -- to improve market accessibility for Awa communities and their products.

The AID-financed projects will be administered by the International Organization for Migration (OIM), a Geneva-based group that also operates projects on the Colombian side of the border. "With all these problems that were occurring the idea was to support these vulnerable border communities in preparation for a possible migration and displacement of people, at the same time with the goal of establishing the foundation for future development," said Alejandro Guidi, program director of OIM in Ecuador.

Critics question whether the increased development and military assistance will keep Colombia's violence outside of Ecuador's borders, believing that it may in fact drag the country into the conflict. Defense Minister Unda downplays the risks and says he expects an incremental tightening of border security over the next ten years that will, "prevent violence and its consequences." He goes on to stress, "As far as we know, Colombian guerrillas have no interest in attacking Ecuador." However, the CONAIE's Ulcuango isn't so sure Ecuador will remain safe from Colombia's killing. "We are a very small country, a very vulnerable country," he warns.

Ronald J. Morgan is a freelance writer who focuses on Ecuador.