5 U.S. Copters to Fight Drugs in Colombia : Bulletproof Vests Also Arrive for Protection of Judges, Prosecutors

Five U.S. UH-1 helicopters and a shipment of bulletproof vests arrived today, the third package of U.S. aid sent under President Bush’s $65-million emergency plan to help Colombia battle cocaine cartels.

The helicopters and vests landed in a C-5 cargo plane, the third military shipment in three days to be rushed to Colombia since an Aug. 24 declaration of “total war” by the powerful cartels against any opponents.

The shipment arrived just hours before Bush was to announce his Administration’s new anti-drug program, which officials say is to include another $300 million to help South American nations stem the production of cocaine.

Vests to Protect Judges

“(The helicopters) will be used by the anti-narcotics police,” said a U.S. Embassy official. “They can be used to transport material and personnel.”

The bulletproof vests are to protect Colombian prosecutors and judges, who have been named as targets for assassinations, threats and bribes. Some Colombian officials admit that the judicial system has been virtually paralyzed by the cocaine cartels.

The latest shipment of U.S. aid came as the wife of a Colombian army colonel was shot dead by unidentified attackers in northern Bogota this morning.

A defense ministry spokesman said said the army had no clues to the motives of the killing but added: “Terrorism in the country is so savage that people are being killed simply because they are family members of military personnel.”

The woman killed today was the wife of Col. Carlos Guerrero Pena.

The defense ministry spokesman, Col. Eduardo Arevalo, asked whether Guerrero Pena had been active in the government’s anti-narcotics effort, said he had been no more involved than anyone else in Colombia’s armed forces.

However, the shadowy group called “The Extraditables,” named for suspected drug traffickers sought by the United States, said in a “declaration of total war” against the Colombian government last month that “we will not respect the family members of those who have not respected ours.”

In earlier shipments of U.S. aid, two four-engine C-130 transport planes landed in Bogota on Sunday, and on Monday eight A-37 reconnaissance and attack jets, formerly stationed at Air National Guard units in Illinois and Michigan, were turned over to Colombia at a military base in the Caribbean city of Barranquilla.

“These aircraft, which will be piloted by Colombians, will strengthen our combat capacity,” Gen. Alfonso Amaya, commander of the Colombian air force, said as the A-37s were delivered. The fast-climbing, twin-engine jets can be equipped with rockets and machine guns. Colombia already has some A-37s.