US special forces to help combat drug trafficking in Colombia’s war-torn areas
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.
The SFAB mission in Colombia is an opportunity to show our mutual commitment against drug trafficking and support for regional peace, respect for sovereignty and the lasting promise to defend shared ideals and values.
US Southern Command chief Admiral Craig Faller
The SFAB mission of “several months” will begin in June as part of a the “Enhanced Counter Narcotics Operations” carried out throughout the hemisphere “to reduce the flow of illicit drugs, degrade transnational criminal organizations, and increase interoperability with our partner nations and interagency partners,” the US Southern Command said in April.
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.”
The production and export of cocaine in Colombia “kills our farmers, destroys forests, wildlife and contaminates the rivers and seas,” the US embassy quoted Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo as saying.
The SFAB’s of more than 500 soldiers did not exist until 2018 and also meant to bolster US allies dubbed “weak states” by American military scholars.
Colombia, whose state has historically been considered weak, has been struggling to lower cocaine production, partially because its National Army has been bogged down by corruption.
I’d dearly love to know what they’re doing to prevent folks from snorting the product up their noses. As long as there’s a market, there will be a supply. You’d think we’d have learned from the failed 18th amendment to the US Constitution. You’d be wrong. Sending our men to fight the production is asinine at best. Until the first world gets a grip on their decadent search for pleasure at any cost, there’ll be third world production of the means of supplying those searchers with the destructive elements they seek.
One of the more recent movies I liked was the first Sicario.
The main ‘hidden’ subplot was that the U.S. gubbermint knew that “Until someone finds a way to stop 20 percent of America putting this $#!+ up their nose, order is the best we can hope for.” as they were simply dealing with the more uncontrollably violent of the Mexican cartels who were smuggling the drugs in.
That may, or may not be reality, but, like you said, any attempts to curtail production have failed miserably. A demand will be met with a supply. All the – smart – manufacturers will do is move their real facilities out of the way and either let these troops find worn out equipment that was going to be abandoned anyway, or through their corrupted contacts in the Colombian gubbermint/military, raid competitor’s operations.
It brings up the idea that these SFABs are a pretty new thing. They and the concept of their plan of operation, haven’t really been tested and this may simply be a way to do that, and justify their existence, doing something like a live fire exercise with lethal targets. So it’s ‘optics’ for the brass & service politicians.
Yes, that’s just my cynical side coming out again.