7 U.S. ambassadors meet at SouthCom to discuss fight on terror, drugs

www.heraldtribune.com The Associated Press

A growing consensus has emerged among Latin American nations on the need to coordinate their efforts to combat drugs and terrorism, the head of the U.S. Southern Command said Thursday.

Gen. James Hill said a two-day meeting of U.S. ambassadors to seven Latin American countries at SouthCom underscored the importance of increased communication and coordination to battle the drug networks that help fund terrorist groups.

"The problem in Colombia is Brazil's problem. The problem in Colombia is Chile's problem. The problem in Colombia is Argentina's problem. And they're all going to have to work together," Hill said.

U.S. ambassadors to Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Venezuela took part in the Andean Ridge Chiefs of Mission Conference that concluded Thursday.

The U.S. military has taken an expanded role in recent months in Colombia, where rebels have waged war for 38 years against a succession of elected governments.

Anne Patterson, U.S. ambassador to Colombia, told reporters this month that 70 U.S. Army trainers had arrived to train 6,500 Colombian soldiers for three months to protect a key oil pipeline from attacks by rebels.

The deployment of the members of the 7th Special Forces Group, based at Fort Bragg, N.C., followed a Congress-approved decision by the Bush administration that U.S. military assistance should be expanded into helping Colombia combat the rebels.

Previously, U.S. military aid and training was restricted largely to battling cocaine production, which rebels and rival paramilitary gunmen profit from, fueling the war.

Hill said the region's most pressing problem includes the "growing influence of drug money and drug corruption on democracies.

"It is pervasive and it is destabilizing and that's something that we all have to take a hard look at," Hill said.

Hill said officials had a "free-ranging" discussion about the recent political turmoil in Venezuela with U.S. Ambassador Charles Shapiro but declined to elaborate. He said SouthCom continues to monitor the situation like any other country in the region.

"That is a situation that's up to the people of Venezuela acting in construct within their own democracy to work out, not for SouthCom," Hill said.

Southern Command oversees U.S. military activities in 32 nations and 12 dependencies, from Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba to Plan Colombia, the $1.7 billion aid project to strengthen Colombia's military and counter-drug operations.