Colombia Fears Rebels May Get Surface-To-Air
Missiles
By Chris Kraul
Bogota - Colombia and the United States have
a recurring worry: This country's largest
rebel group succeeds in acquiring
surface-to-air missiles and forces the
government to alter a strategy that has
knocked the insurgents on their heels and
turned the tide in a decades-long conflict.
There are reasons for concern. Last month, a
Syrian arms trafficker was arrested in
Honduras as he tried to sell missiles and
other weapons to U.S. undercover agents
posing as members of the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
The sting was the third in two years in
which arms traffickers were caught allegedly
trying to sell missiles to U.S. informants
or agents posing as Colombians.
In this case, Syrian suspect Jamal Yousef
was extradited to the United States, where
he pleaded not guilty in New York federal
court. According to the indictment, he tried
to trade 17 or 18 surface-to-air missiles or
SAMs; 200 assault rifles; C-4 explosives;
and 2,500 hand grenades for 1 ton of cocaine
offered by the undercover agents.
Yousef allegedly told the agents that the
arms were stored in Mexico by a relative who
was a member of Hezbollah, a Lebanese
militia that the U.S. classifies as a
terrorist organization.
An official at the Pentagon's Southern
Command in Miami, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because of security concerns, said
the FARC is "actively shopping" for SAMs,
which have a market value of $15,000 to
$110,000 each.
With such weapons, the rebels could force
the government to rework a strategy that has
transformed Colombia's mediocre armed forces
into an effective fighting force.
Mobile brigades, using 50 Black Hawk
helicopters given as part of Washington's
$6-billion Plan Colombia aid package, have
won numerous battles, forced the FARC to
retreat deeper into mountain and jungle
refuges and killed or captured several top
FARC leaders over the last several years.
With the missiles, rebels could shoot down
slow-moving helicopters, as well as the
propeller-driven Brazilian Super Tucano
warplanes that the Colombian air force uses
to attack rebel camps.
Military and intelligence officials said
they are mindful of the Soviet military's
experience in Afghanistan, where
surface-to-air missiles provided by the CIA
helped mujahedin fighters turn the tide
against a large, mechanized force.
After years of battlefield setbacks and
thinning ranks, the Colombian rebels would
need "far more" than the 17 or 18 missiles
Yousef was trying to sell to radically alter
the course of the conflict, said Robert
Munks, Americas analyst with Jane's Country
Risk in London.
"The significance of the FARC's possession
of a small number of surface-to-air missiles
would force the Colombian military to change
their standard operating procedures, which
relies on air superiority," Munks said.
The missiles would also have a psychological
and propaganda effect "far out of proportion
to the actual threat," Munks said.
Since 2002, when rebels controlled
three-quarters of Colombian territory,
President Alvaro Uribe's aggressive military
approach has put them on the defensive. From
more than 20,000 uniformed fighters, the
FARC's ranks have thinned to no more than
9,000, according to official estimates. The
kidnappings and drug trafficking that the
group uses to finance its operations have
eroded the rebels' popular support.
Still, financed mainly by drug profits, the
rebels remain a presence to be reckoned
with, especially in rural and jungle areas.
They are major clients for the world's arms
traffickers, according to the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime.
The prospect of the FARC acquiring missiles
is a "great worry," said an official with
the U.N. agency during a recent
arms-trafficking seminar in Bogota. "It
could give them a whole new tactical
capacity."
With its many armed factions, long-running
wars and porous borders, Colombia is an
irresistible market for arms dealers and its
trafficking history has been at times
colorful. Erstwhile dealers have included
crooked Venezuelan and Colombian army
officers who have robbed their own arsenals
to resell the weapons at a big profit to
Colombia's armed groups.
The Colombian and U.S. governments have
formed special intelligence teams to track
the FARC's arms buying activities. Over the
last two years, those efforts have netted
"big fish" in the global arms bazaar.
Last November, Syrian arms dealer Monzer
Kassar was convicted in a U.S. federal court
of conspiracy to sell millions of dollars
worth of surface-to-air missiles, launchers
for rocket-propelled grenades, munitions and
arms training to Drug Enforcement
Administration agents posing as FARC rebels.
Kassar was arrested in Spain in 2007 and
extradited to the United States.
In April 2008, Russian arms dealer Victor
Bout, the so-called "Merchant of Death," was
arrested in Thailand allegedly trying to
close a sale of SAMs, C-4 explosives,
night-vision equipment and other weapons to
U.S. agents he thought were Colombian
rebels. He is in Thai custody pending a U.S.
extradition request.
Concern about possible missile purchases has
intensified since Colombian officials said
e-mails found in laptop computers recovered
from the late FARC leader Raul Reyes' secret
camp in Ecuador revealed that he was leading
intensive efforts to acquire missiles.
Reyes was killed in a March 2008 raid on his
camp by Colombian forces.
As described by Colombian army officials,
the e-mails indicated that FARC operatives
in neighboring Venezuela were in touch with
officials in President Hugo Chavez's
government, including the military
intelligence chief and the former interior
minister, to acquire missiles and other
weapons. Chavez maintains that the e-mails
were fabricated.
In July, the Bogota daily newspaper El
Tiempo quoted anonymous sources in a secret
Colombian government agency that tracks the
FARC's arms dealings as saying FARC leader
Ivan Marquez was negotiating with
"Venezuelan contacts" to buy as many as 20
Russian shoulder-fired IGLA S-24
surface-to-air missiles.
Chavez's government denies the accusations.
Chavez has expressed sympathy for the
rebels' cause but denies giving the FARC any
material support.
Three antitank missiles sold to the
Venezuelan armed forces by Sweden in the
late 1980s were recovered last year at an
abandoned FARC camp in eastern Colombia.
Chavez said they had been stolen by rebels
from an army arsenal a decade ago, and not
given by his government.
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