By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
BOGOTA, Colombia—Colombia has been waging war against powerful drug warlords for many years. The warlords have been working with relative impunity, frightening many civilians and frustrating government forces. Now a U.S. firm has jumped on board to help Colombia in its anti-narcotics campaign.
ManTech International Corp. has received a $6.2 million contract to help fight drug warlords who operate between South, Central and North America, trafficking narcotics. The U.S. firm is a provider of new technologies that deal with mission-critical national security programs. ManTech has said they plan on operating in Colombia after receiving a task order in line with a Strategic Services Sourcing prime contract. The multimillion dollar award will allow the mission to operate for at least 12 months, with an option to be extended for another two years.
ManTech intends to provide a bilingual team to work on communications to U.S. air assets that battle narcotics trafficking in Colombian air space. The firm said the team will help plan air operations and support the U.S. Military Group Colombia with technical and security problems. ManTech’s strategies have suggested that their operations in Colombia will be diversified.
Louis Addeo, president and chief operating officer of ManTech’s Technical Services Group said, “We are proud to be selected to play a part in the U.S. counter-narcotics mission. Colombia is a prominent positioning point to battle the illegal drug trade that enters the United States.” Addeo added that the company’s “extensive experience supporting U.S. military forces overseas” would help it be successful in its mission.
The United States has been aiding the Colombian government in its fight against traffickers who bring illegal drugs into richer areas of the Western Hemisphere. The U.S. has spent tens of millions of dollars on these endeavors; yet the paramilitary drug gangs have so far been able to expertly use their acquired funds to counter government forces.
Drug lords living and working in Colombia have been powerful enough to command entire regions both within and outside of the country. They have also been known to rule over towns and villages, run their own air strips, and keep informers who work in a variety of public and private sectors.
On Thursday, the United Nations reported that Colombian gangs drove a 40% increase in massacres last year, murdering human rights defenders, public officials, and civilians. Christian Salazar, a U.N. representative, said, “These groups have the power to corrupt and infiltrate the state [and] are a strong threat to the rule of law.”
For more information, please see:
UPI-U.S. firm joins Colombia anti-narcotics operation-24 February 2011
Reuters-Colombia crime gangs spur more massacres in ’10: U.N.-24 February 2011
Colombia Reports-ManTech wins $6.2M contract to combat Colombian narco-trafficking-23 February 2011
