U.S. plans to double its force in Colombia

BOGOTA, Colombia -- The number of American military personnel here will double, to 800, in the coming months, based on a weekend vote in the U.S. Congress.

The action was welcomed by President Alvaro Uribe's government for its fight against Marxist rebels but condemned by human rights monitors, who warned of a sharp escalation in Colombia's conflict.

The 2005 U.S. Defense Department authorization act, approved Saturday by Congress, also permits the Bush administration to increase the number of American citizens working for private contractors in Colombia to 600 from 400.

The soldiers and many of the contractors will, among other things, develop and analyze intelligence on rebel movements, do surveillance and train Colombian troops in counter-guerrilla operations.

American officials who lobbied Capitol Hill to lift restrictions said more American personnel were urgently needed to help Colombia in its nine-month offensive in the south that pits 18,000 Colombian soldiers against the country's most formidable rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. "That requires logistical capabilities, maintaining supply lines, getting food and fuel to the front, providing medical evacuation capabilities," said Adam Isacson, a senior analyst at the Center for International Policy, a Washington group that tracks Colombia. "They need a lot more American personnel to fill those gaps."

Though the United States has contributed $3.3 billion to Colombia, most of it in military aid, Uribe has lobbied hard for a larger American role in the 40-year-old, drug-fueled conflict.

Lifting the congressionally mandated limits on troops and contractors, a little-noticed measure in the 5,000-page Pentagon authorization bill, is seen by some political analysts and rights advocates as a major step toward even larger American troop commitments.

The work Americans and others do in Colombia's conflict is perilous. Eleven contractors, American and other foreign nationals, working for American companies under Pentagon contracts have been killed since 1998. Three Americans whose plane crashed in a surveillance mission over rebel territory remain in guerrilla hands 17 months after being taken hostage.

Under Uribe's administration, violence has ebbed in Colombia, the economy has improved and the security forces have weakened rebel forces and destroyed vast fields of coca, the crop used to make cocaine. But combat remains common, and political assassinations and kidnappings occur with staggering frequency.

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