The men sat down on a tile floor with many of them wearing combat boots and most others having their hands behind their backs. They were surrounded by weapons, passports and bulletproof vests. Black balaclava-clad soldiers stood nearby with rifles at their ready, and were wearing balaclavas. According to Haitian authorities, they were Colombian mercenaries who had been sent by a Florida-based security company. This brazen plot culminated in the assassination and terrorizing of President Jovenel Moses. In connection with the assassination of July 7, 18 Colombians were arrested, many of them ex-soldiers, and some from elite units. Five more people are still missing, and three others were killed following the attack. Two Haitian Americans, one of them a former U.S. Government informant, surrendered to authorities hours later, claiming they were translators who helped to serve an arrest warrant against the president and to transfer him to the presidential palace.The mystery surrounding the Colombians' activities in Haiti continues to grow almost three weeks after their arrest. According to The Intercept, at least seven of these alleged assassins were trained in the U.S. during their military careers. A U.S. official claims that the soldiers were trained in the U.S. and Colombia between 2001 and 2015. The skills ranged from professional development and military leadership to counternarcotics, counterterrorism, and counternarcotics. Experts in Latin American security pointed out that the U.S. had administered more than 107.640 trainings for Colombian security personnel over the past 20 years, so it was likely that at least some of Moses' alleged murderers would have received U.S. instruction. The Colombians' presence in Haiti has provided rare access to a murky private world of security that extends beyond the U.S. and into Latin America and Caribbean. This highlights the significant role that Colombian veterans play in the global mercenary market. Although the story of Moses' assassination is still being told, it is clear that there is a common thread: The interconnected relationship between the U.S. security forces and Colombian security has created a generation of hired guns. Some of these hired guns can, for the right price.These are the experiences of these guys. These guys have seen the elephant, if that is what you want.Understanding this evolution requires understanding the decade and a half in which Moses' alleged assassins were trained by the U.S. These were the Plan Colombia Years, during which the U.S. provided $10 billion in counternarcotics assistance to Colombia. This was a significant period that saw the U.S. pump more money into the country than any other country. It also helped transform Colombia's military into the most advanced fighting force in Latin America. Many U.S. officials and Colombian officials have made Plan Colombia a synonym for American intervention done right. It is an example Washington supporting a partner who has overcome the threat of narco destruction through great sacrifices and determination. In a reference to his long-term work in bringing the program into being, Joe Biden claimed that he was the one who created Plan Colombia. Plan Colombia was a terrible and iconic example of counterinsurgency, an awful and emblematic example, wrapped in a supply-side, international drug war strategy. This strategy produced waves of extrajudicial murders, staggering environmental destruction and a market for Colombian mercenaries. The Intercept spoke with a former U.S. military officer who was involved in the implementation of the program. An official speaking under anonymity because they continue to work for another part of the U.S. government described how the joint U.S./Colombian mission evolved over the years and how the war against terror, both operationally, and through the widespread privatization of combat operations, had influenced this evolution. They explained that Colombians possess something that their competitors do not have: combat experience in one the longest civil wars in history. Contractors will be aware that a man cannot serve in the Colombian military for more than 20 years without having completed or demonstrated a series training schools, some of which were taught by the U.S. Men become more serious when they are in combat situations. Your weapon does not have to work if you are in a peaceful place. If you're in Colombia, however, an attack could happen right now. These guys have had these experiences. These guys have seen the elephant, if that is what you want.Two men are being taken by police to be charged with involvement in the assassination in Port-au-Prince (Haiti) on July 8, 2021. Photo by Valerie Baeriswyl/AFP via Getty ImagesPlan Colombia President Bill Clinton visited Cartagena, Colombia in August 2000. Bill Clinton was visiting Colombia to announce the $1.3 billion first installment of a controversial aid package. His presence at Bogot drew thousands to the streets. Yet, ABC News reported that Clinton arrived in Cartagena with information from a lengthy Senate report published months before. It had recommended that the Colombian police and army receive more assistance. It stated that there has never been an opportunity to strike at the source of drug trafficking like this in recent history. Joe Biden, a Delaware senator at the time, was the author of this document. Although Plan Colombia is often viewed through the lens of the drug war in the U.S., the security package was implemented against a backdrop of a longer conflict involving leftist militias, paramilitaries and the Colombian government. This is a story where the U.S. government and Biden have made repeated appearances. The relationship's modern history can be traced back as far as 1962 when U.S. Army Colonel. Gen. William Yarborough was sent to Colombia in 1962 to evaluate the counterinsurgency situation. In the years before, more than 200,000 Colombians had been killed by the land-owning elite. Yarborough, who was the commander of the Pentagons Special Warfare Center, was one of the most well-known Green Berets of all times. In a secret memo to Joint Chiefs of Staff Yarborough suggested that civilian units be created with the mandate to carry out terrorist, paramilitary and/or terrorist acts against known communist proponents. This marked the start of Colombia's internal conflict. Human Rights Watch documented in a report that Yarborough's prescription directly influenced the response of the Colombian military to the insurgency. This was especially evident in the acceptance by irregular, armed paramilitaries and those who became death squads. Washington's interest in Colombia grew again in 1980s as the U.S. demanded for cocaine grew and lawmakers saw new opportunities within the war against drugs that the Nixon administration had declared a decade before. Both sides of the aisle demanded more to stop drug flow at source. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed secret directive declaring drug trafficking a national threat. This opened the door for increased military operations in Colombia. The Vice President George H.W. Bush said that it was crucial to make sure every American understood the very real connection between drugs and terrorists. Bush stated at the time. Two years later, Berlin Wall fell. The Cold War was over. The drug war continued and Bush was elected commander-in-chief. In a 1989 interview with the Los Angeles Times, a U.S. general stated that the drug war continued. Members of the Pentagon's elite Joint Special Operations Command were present in Colombia to aid the government's search for Pablo Escobar, the cocaine kingpin, decades before they were dispatched to kill Osama Bin Laden. On December 2, 1993, the hunt for Pablo Escobar ended in Medelln. As the various factions involved in Colombia's internal conflict fought for control and survival of an enormously lucrative illicit market, legislators relaxed regulations regarding the creation of private security firms. This decision, along with other historic events around the world, would pave the way to hundreds of Colombian security companies in the years ahead.Biden's deep relationship with the Colombian conflict was evident, as he would declare on the campaign trail many decades later.Biden's deep relationship with the Colombian conflict was evident decades later when he made the same declaration on the campaign trail. Biden was a vocal critic of Reagan's drug war policies in the 1980s. He argued that the U.S. wasn't doing enough to stop Colombian cocaine flows and that the White House didn’t support law enforcement. He also advocated for more Pentagon and CIA involvement with the drug war. Biden traveled to Colombia in April 2000 to survey the U.S. counternarcotics operation. Biden's May 2000 report was the result of his visit to Colombia. In it, he expressed his support for former President Andrs Pastranas Plan Colombia. The plan, which was announced in 1999, sought $7.5 billion in international assistance to support Colombia's progress on a variety of issues. It is not certain that the plan will reduce narcotics trafficking. Biden stated that anyone who claims they can be certain it will succeed is lying or a fool. In my 28 years of service in the Senate, I have been involved in the study and discussion on narcotics policy. With this president in Bogota we have an opportunity to make a difference in Colombia's drug trade. This rare enforcement opportunity is at risk if we don't seize it. Clinton assured critics in Colombia and the U.S. of their misplaced fears when he announced the first round. Clinton stated that this is not Vietnam and it is not Yankee imperialism. Pastrana reiterated these assurances in an interview with ABC. He said that he doesn't believe the military advisers will be involved in the actual war in Colombia. They will not be. Thirteen month later, everything had changed.Left/Top: President Bill Clinton and Colombian President Andrs Pastrana speak during Clinton's arrival in Cartagena (Colombia) to launch Plan Colombia. Right/Bottom - Demonstrators set fire to the U.S. flag in preparation for President Bill Clinton's August 30, 2000 visit to Colombia.The Melding of Two Wars: The September 11th attacks changed the way the U.S. approached Colombia's drug war. The Colombian army has been largely ignoring the issue of drug enforcement for decades. Instead, it is focusing on its counterinsurgency campaign against FARC and other insurgents. The U.S. troops on the ground were instructed to concentrate on drug trafficking. According to an official speaking to The Intercept, we didn't want to get involved in internal conflicts in other countries. The official who spoke to The Intercept said that they didn't want to get involved in an internal conflict in a country. Three months after the terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush stated that terrorists use drug profits to finance their cells. The president stated that terrorists use drug profits to fund their acts of murder. This was just three months after the attacks. A year prior to Plan Colombia funding being approved in the U.S., three research organizations, the Transnational Institute in The Netherlands, Accin andina in Bolivia, as well as the Washington Office on Latin America published a report detailing how the group's expansion fuelled a perception that there was a growing narcoguerrilla threat to Colombia. But the reality was much more complex. The report stated that the guerillas' military growth was not restricted to their ability to make more money through kidnapping, extortion and threats to local authorities as well as to civilian populations. Their increased armed capabilities are due to their ability to take military advantage of cracks in a highly corrupt regime that requires reforms. They didn't participate in the counternarcotics aspect. Instead, they said, Hey that's a police mission. But, we had already told them, Look, that train has left the station. The armed forces replied, "Yes, you are right." The armed forces said, Yes, you're right. A crew of contractors were conducting a coca spraying operation when a plane carrying them crashed into a jungle under the control of FARC. Four Americans were taken hostage. According to the U.S. official at the time, U.S.-Colombian intelligence sharing regarding FARC camps was prohibited. They said that our mission was to find them. They said that they had been held captive for five years in the jungle. The Bush administration then approved a CIA covert operation program where U.S intelligence, mainly from National Security Agency intercepts would be used to direct Colombian bombing operations against FARC targets. The Obama administration continued the program for 10 years. It was only revealed in 2013 by Dana Priest, an investigative reporter at Washington Post. Priest described how Washington's government lawyers combined the legal reasoning that undergirded high value targeting operations in the war against terror with Reagan's declaration of drug trafficking a national security risk to justify the covert bombardment campaign. According to the U.S. official, Colombia's military reached the point of performing HVT missions one after another. That is what brought the FARC back to the peace table. That was a result of Plan Colombia. But it wasn't the only one.We were pumping all of this money into Plan Colombia and, in the meantime, we were losing soldiers who went to become mercenaries so that they could make more money in Iraq.Their mercenary stock grew as the Colombians' relationship with the U.S. grew in the 2000s. The New York Times reported in 2011 that Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, the most notorious mercenary army in the world, had recruited hundreds from Colombia to be the shock troops of the United Arab Emirates. Four years later, private Colombian forces of the UAE began appearing on Yemeni battlefields. Bloomberg reported that a former Colombian soldier could earn $90 per hour in the Middle East. This is compared to about $375 per monthly back home. In 2015, ex-Colombian soldiers were reportedly training Mexican drug cartels. Sanho Tree is a fellow at Institute for Policy Studies. This progressive think tank began to work on Plan Colombia issues in the late 1990s. He explained that although mercenaries have been part of Colombia's security story for a long time, it was the Iraq War which gave them a chance. They provided VIP and site security. Tree said that he was a screamer of bloody murder during the occupation in Iraq. Tree said that we were pumping all of this money into Plan Colombia and, in the meantime, were losing soldiers who turn mercenary to make more money in Iraq. They have ended up working for the death squads, paramilitaries and narcotraffickers. They have worked for the paramilitaries, the narco traffickers, and death squads. Colombia's President Ivn Duque stated earlier this month that investigators believe that seven of the Colombian-based mercenaries who were killed or captured in Haiti were aware they were on an assassination mission. The others might not have known. Many relatives of the Colombians claim that their loved ones believed that they were working to protect a VIP, potentially saving their lives. This is a unique feature of Colombia, which has a large number of highly-trained individuals who, once they reach a certain level or age, are forced to leave the service. Adam Isacson (WOLAs director for the Defense Oversight program) told The Intercept. There are many retired special forces in the USA, but they all seem capable of finding jobs. Some of them work just across the river in Virginia, while others work as consultants or other types of stuff in Colombia. Many of these men make very poor livings once they leave the military. It seems like we are in a contract economy now.A FBI agent is seen leaving the Presidential Residence in Port-au-Prince (Haiti) on July 15, 2021, as part of the investigation into the assassination attempt on President Jovenel Moe. Photo: Matias Delacroix/APBlowback The Biden administration announced Thursday that it had appointed a special envoy for Haiti to assist in the aftermath of the assassination of Mose. From 2011 to 2012, Ambassador Daniel Foote was the deputy chief of mission at Port-au-Prince. He was previously the top counternarcotics official at the State Department in Colombia. After a two-year stint in Afghanistan, Foote was appointed as the deputy assistant secretary of Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement. The State Department stated that the veteran foreign service officer will work with Haitian and international partners in order to foster long-term peace, stability, and support efforts for free and fair presidential, legislative, and parliamentary elections. It also plans to coordinate efforts of U.S. federal agencies, officials, and aid the Haitian people. Toby Muse, author Kilo: Inside the Cocaine Cartels, and long-time Colombia correspondent, stated that the drug war in Colombia is not a real war but was used as a metaphor. This conflict, which is intertwined with the governments counterinsurgency warfare against the FARC, has resulted in mass internal displacement as well as grave human rights violations by the Colombian security forces, whose veterans often find work in mercenary ranks. The false positives scandal is one of the most disturbing crimes committed by the government in recent years. It is believed that the military killed more than 6,400 civilians during a period of six years in the early 2000s to increase its count of left-wing insurgents who died on the battlefield. Officials in Colombia have denied that extrajudicial killings took place. Francisco Eladio Uribe (one of the Colombians currently held in Haiti) was at least investigated for the scandal. However, his wife claimed that he was innocent. Muse said that people don't understand how cruel and inhumane this was. These soldiers were killing innocent civilians and dressing them up in guerilla garb, so they could get a few more holiday days. However, an operation that was not supposed to replicate the Vietnam experience would be defined by the reintroduction of aerial fumigation, one of the most destructive and punishing war tactics. Plan Colombia elevated fumigation to a new level, despite Nixon having used it in the borderlands between the U.S.S.A. and Mexico in 1970s. The consequences were severe: millions upon millions of acres of forest were sprayed with toxic chemicals, food and ecosystems destroyed, unborn children killed in the womb. The growers have learned to adapt. Colombia is still the largest producer of cocaine in the world.The drug war within the U.S. borders is not often seen as an extension U.S. foreign policies with the potential to cause significant blowback.
