PLAN COLOMBIA IMPLEMENTATION ROUND-UP, APRIL, 2005

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BOGOTA 005060

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV SNAR MASS PREF EAID KJUS CO
SUBJECT: PLAN COLOMBIA IMPLEMENTATION ROUND-UP, APRIL, 2005


1. (U) The following is an update of Plan Colombia activities
reported during April, 2005.

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DOJ/JSRP
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2. (U) DOJ continued to provide training and technical
assistance through the Justice Sector Reform Program (JSRP),
in particular to develop the criminal justice sector during
the transition to the new accusatory system. Thirty members
of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) visited
Bogota as part of an exchange with the Colombian Institute
for Legal Medicine. The following DOJ training programs also
took place in April:

-- The two-week "Investigator As a Witness" course was
offered in Bogota, Medellin, Cali, Bucaramanga,
Villavicencio, Tunja, and Yopal to 780 police investigators.
The course used practical exercises and classroom
presentations to focus on crime scene management, report
writing, interview techniques and testimony in court.

-- The two-week "Criminal Trial Advocacy" course was offered
in Medellin and Cali to 120 prosecutors and 60 police
investigators. The course used classroom presentations and
mock trials presided over by Colombian judges to focus on
prosecution strategy, developing and presenting evidence, the
new criminal procedure code, police and prosecutor
cooperation, preliminary hearings, and trial techniques.

-- The one-week "Criminal Trial Advocacy: Judges" course was
offered in Medellin to 50 judges. The course used classroom
presentations and mock trials to focus on the new criminal
procedure code, the role of the judge in an accusatory
system, handling evidence, and presiding over proceedings.

-- The two-week "Patrol Officer Training" course was offered
in Cali and Tunja to 70 Colombian National Police (CNP)
officers. The course trained the officers as instructors.
The officers will train patrol officers in the new criminal
procedure code, and the accusatory system.

-- The one-week "Leadership for Judicial Police" course was
offered in Bogota to 30 police officers. The course focused
on improving leadership skills for police commanders and unit
chiefs.

-- The one-week "Anti-Corruption" course, focusing on
institutional transparency, was offered to 30 judicial police
supervisors and unit commanders from the CNP, Department of
Administrative Security (DAS) and Cuerpo Tecnico de
Investigaciones (CTI).

-- The one-week "Intellectual Property" course was offered to
30 police investigators and prosecutors. The course used
classroom presentations and case studies presented by U.S.
and Colombian instructors to focus on copyright and trademark
law, the connection between piracy and terrorism, and the
identification of counterfeit music and DVD movies.

-- The two-week "Anti-Kidnapping" course was offered by the
JSRP and the FBI, in coordination with the office of the Vice
President, to 36 prosecutors and investigators from the
National Anti-Kidnapping Unit and seven regional
anti-kidnapping units. The course used classroom
presentations, mock crime scene investigation and mock trials
to focus on investigation and prosecution strategy in
kidnapping cases, crime scene and evidence management,
interview techniques, and presentation of evidence and
testimony in court.

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MILGROUP
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3. (U) Several U.S.-funded civil affairs construction
projects in conflict areas are nearing completion. In the
next two months, the following projects will be inaugurated:
a school in Sumapaz; clinics in Aracaraua, Ortega and
Valencia; a rehab center for mine-injured civilians in
Caqueta; and a day care center for Downs Syndrome children in
Planadas. On May 21, the Ambassador inaugurated a library in
San Vicente de Caguan. These facilities are located in
former FARC-controlled areas, and demonstrate a GOC presence
with Colombian Military (COLMIL) personnel.


4. (U) Vice Minister of Defense (VMOD) Jorge Mario Eastman
Robledo asked MILGROUP and the Ambassador to intervene in
five Foreign Military Sales (FMS) cases being managed by the
U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) related to the
modification or acquisition of UH-60 aircraft. Eastman noted
that AMCOM failed to: deliver pricing and availability data
after repeated requests, cut contracts, cut partial contracts
without customer notification, implement amendments, and meet
promised timelines. MILGROUP will send details of the cases
to SOUTHCOM and ask for General Officer assistance in
resolving them.

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NAS
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5. (U) On April 14, GOC forces repelled an attack by 300-400
members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
on the town of Toribio, Cauca Department. The 82 members of
the town's Municipal Police detachment were among the first
armed and equipped under the Plan Colombia Reinsertion of
Police in Conflictive Zones program. The police were able to
hold back the FARC until GOC rapid response elements arrived,
including the Mobile Rural Police (Caribineros) and
Antinarcotics Police Airmobile Squadron (Jungla) troops.
Both the Caribineros and the Junglas also train under Plan
Colombia programs.

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RSO
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6. (U) Anti-Kidnapping Initiative (AKI): The ninth CRT
course will begin in mid-June and be completed in late July.
Weapons will be issued to AKI participants from the first
four CRT courses conducted in 2003 and 2004. All previously
trained CRT GAULAs will be issued weapons and equipment by
the end of summer 2005. In the future, all CRT participants
will receive their weapons and equipment at the completion of
the course.


7. (U) Mr. Delphin "Tuffy" Von Brieson, a former DEA special
agent, was selected as the new Anti-Terrorism Assistance
(ATA) AKI program manager. Mr. Victor De Windt, a former DSS
special agent, was selected as the new AKI CRT course
manager. RSO Mark Hunter departed Post on PCS travel on May

8. Acting RSO Mike French will be the POC for the ATA AKI
program.


8. (U) VIP Personal Protection Training (PPT) Program:
Twenty-four officials from the Mayor of Bogota's protective
detail graduated from the latest PPT course on April 8. The
next course will be conducted at the DAS Officers Academy
from May 2 - 13. Instructors Tom Dorsch and Mary Beth Wilkas
will leave the PPT Program on May 29 and return on contracts
over the next year. In an effort to downsize to three
instructor positions, only Mr. Dorsch's position will be
filled. Future training will be focused on the President's
and Vice President's protective details, while the
instructors will continue to advise the Mayor's protective
detail.

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USAID
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9. (U) Contributions from USAID and PRM of US$6.3 million
leveraged US$13.2 million from the GOC to integrate
humanitarian assistance and economic support projects for
nearly 20,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs). Awarded
to USG grantee, Cooperative Housing Foundation (CHF)
International, these funds will serve to expand PRM's
emergency humanitarian assistance projects from 14 to 21
cities. The funds will cover almost 100 percent of the
demand for aid to displaced families to date this year and
will strengthen USAID's economic support activities in
Barranquilla, Bogota, Buenaventura, Cali, Santa Marta and
most of the coffee-producing provinces (the "Eje Cafetero").


10. (U) USAID's Office of Food for Peace approved a
contribution of 4,570 metric tons of Title II emergency
commodities to meet immediate nutrition needs for roughly
110,000 IDPs. The assistance, valued at US $3.5 million, was
granted to World Food Program's (WFP) Protracted Relief and
Recovery Operation (PRRO) program in Colombia. WFP will
provide food rations to IDPs as they transition to greater
self-sufficiency. Distributions will cover the first six
months of displacement -- the most critical period for IDPs.
Commodities (e.g., rice, lentils and vegetable oil) are
expected to arrive in Colombia in late-July or early-August

2005.


11. (U) To help prepare Colombia for the transition to an
oral, accusatorial justice system, USAID has designed,
constructed and delivered 35 specialized oral court rooms and
trained over 1,659 criminal justice system operators in oral
procedures required by the new system, including public
defenders, inspectors, judges, and law professors. Only 100
days after implementing the new accusatory justice system in
pilot jurisdictions in Bogota, Manizales, Pereira and
Armenia, statistics are showing improvements. Police are
making fewer frivolous arrests; scarce court, prosecutor and
public defender resources are being focused on more serious
crimes; out of 10,543 pre-trial negotiations, 8,273 (78.5%)
ended in a settlement; and nearly 76% of the 2,943 cases
arraigned in the first 100 days were plea-bargained. Cases
that have been settled and arraigned will not require costly
and time-consuming trials.
WOOD