News
Agency New Colombia*
Nyhetsbyrån
Nya Colombia * Agencia de Noticias Nueva Colombia
* Agence
de nouvelles Nueva Colombia *
Agenzia di Notizie Nueova Colombia * Nachrichtenagentur Neues Kolombien
Asociated
members of FELAP, Federación Latinoamericana de Periodistas
E-mail:
ann.col@swipnet.se
[NOTE: "Deepen democracy and promote prosperity." Ha!;-)
Doublespeak for "kill more peasants, workers and human rights defenders."
-DG]
The Defense Department said the helicopters, made by United Technologies
Corp., would help Colombian forces upgrade both day and night mission capability
for the defense of government installations and provide close air support
for ground forces.
REUTERS
Thursday, 11 November 1999
Colombia seeks U.S. military helicopters
WASHINGTON -- Colombia says it wants to buy 14 ''Blackhawk''
military helicopters from the United States for $221 million to beef up
its forces in the war against Marxist guerrillas and drug cartels, the
Pentagon said Wednesday.
The Defense Department said the deal was not final, but that the UH-60L
helicopters, some armed with machine guns and rockets, would ``improve
the security of a friendly country which has been and continues to be an
important force in the war on drugs.''
Such a sale would be part of a renewed U.S. effort to help the South
American country improve its military capability in the long war against
drug cartels and the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
The Defense Department said the helicopters, made by United Technologies
Corp., would help Colombian forces upgrade both day and night mission capability
for the defense of government installations and provide close air support
for ground forces.
The FARC is involved in protecting the production and shipment of drugs
to help finance their long-running war to topple the state. It is also
reported to have stepped up kidnappings and extortion rackets in Bogota
over the last year in an effort to raise fresh finances.
At least 35,000 people have died in the last 10 years of fighting and
FARC commanders pledged recently to target major urban centers in a bid
to bring their three-decade-old uprising in from remote rural regions to
Colombia's towns and cities.
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