Feral Jundi

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Colombia: Oil Companies Say Security Is Government’s Job, And The Defense Minister Disagrees

Filed under: Colombia,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 3:57 PM

“It’s impossible to maintain any longer our current security plan–one that was effective years ago when there were very few oil companies and fields to care for,” the minister said Tuesday. “There are now 130 oil companies out there.”

Very interesting news in Colombia. Lately there has been a spike in energy sector attacks by ELN and FARC. They are successful because they have reduced the size of their attack forces, which then helps them to attack more targets and thin out the government forces assigned to stop them. The ‘few and the many’ from the new rules of war comes to mind. Also, it is very easy for this few and many force to go on the offensive and cause damage. Just look at what MEND was able to accomplish in Nigeria?

“Before there were movements that were more massive,” Gutierrez said. “Now clearly it’s more individuals and cells, which is a different presence from what it used to be.”

Now combine these tactics with a highly dispersed government force trying to cover down on 130 oil companies and all of their infrastructure/people, and you can see why the defense minister would want the oil companies to pay for their own security. To help the government out because there are just too many people and things to protect against such a dispersed force.

Another thing I wanted to mention is that these oil companies need to realize that Colombians are paying for their protection, as they make oodles of money selling that stuff all over the world. That world market for oil will increase if Iran is attacked or nations fall to revolution.

So to me, this is a classic case where the oil industry will fight to keep getting their good deal and ‘free government security’.  I say make them pay for their own security so the government’s police and military can focus on serving the people and not just serving oil companies. Just a thought.

Also, these attacks coincide with another big development. Colombia is auctioning off 109 oil blocks to international oil companies. The value of those blocks depend upon how secure they are. Who wants to buy an oil block that is in a dangerous area, which would then equate to more risk and more cost?  So security of these sites is crucial to Colombia in order to get more action and attention in these auctions. The FARC and the ELN know this, hence why they are increasing attacks.

But back to private security. Colombia should continue to press the issue of getting PSC’s back in the game there. The companies should be investing in their own security. I compare it to these shipping companies that want the government to pay for all of their security in pirate infested waters, or depending on government to save the day. Hopefully Colombia’s defense minister can press the issue. –Matt

 

Oil companies in Colombia say security is government’s job
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
Dan Molinski
The head of an association of multinational oil companies operating in Colombia said Wednesday it’s the government’s job, and not that of the companies themselves, to provide security to oil workers and infrastructure against rebel attacks.
“We as a sector understand very clearly that security will be provided exclusively by the state,” Alejandro Martinez, president of the Colombian Oil Association, told Caracol Radio.
Martinez’s comments come one day after Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera said the sharp growth in Colombia’s oil sector has made it impossible for military and police to adequately protect all oil installations, many of which are located in remote regions near guerrilla strongholds.
The defense minister said oil companies need their own private security forces to help government troops combat a wave of attacks and kidnappings by Marxist rebels that has threatened to derail the oil industry’s four-year growth spurt.

(more…)

Monday, November 7, 2011

Colombia: Alfonso Cano, Leader Of The FARC, Killed In Raid

Filed under: Colombia,Military News — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 10:13 AM

The air force attacks on the Cañon de Limon and the army incursion of the valley just north of the town of Chaparral forced the FARC leader to move out of the Tolima highlands, first southward and ultimately into the more western Cauca department.
Military sources told weekly Semana that this operation was the beginning of the end of Cano, who had been protected against Army and Air Force by the extreme cold and almost constant fog in the mountain valley.
Following the attack, the military created a militarized corridor from north to south, preventing provisions and reinforcements from the FARC’s Eastern Block to reach Cano’s Central Block, Semana said. This forced Cano to seek reinforcements from the Western Block which had been enforced over the year’s with some of the best guerrilla fighters.

This is fantastic news. Cano did have a bounty on his head, but as you can see from the quote up top, this was purely a military operation. I think this is also a very interesting operation in terms of smoking out tough opponents located in hard to reach zones.

Cano was in a great location, because the fog and terrain was limiting the effectiveness of aircraft, and probably drones for that matter. Although I am sure they were able to get some ISR going up in those hills. Perhaps reconnaissance teams were the best option for locating and targeting?

But the big component here to this operation, looks to be the militarized corridors that were north and south of that position. To basically deny Cano supplies and reinforcements, and force him to move in order to operate. Couple that with the constant bombing runs on his camps, and that was a great combination for getting him out in the open.

Perhaps there are some lessons here for the hunt for Joseph Kony in Africa? Perhaps the strategists in this operation had a metaphorical ‘Trojan Horse’ to defeat Cano with, hence the Odysseus operation name? I would have to think that if you could get one mole into Cano’s group up in those mountains, then you could get the kind of information that could be advantageous. Good job to the Colombians! –Matt

 

Alfonso Cano, leader of Colombia’s FARC rebels, killed in raid
By Juan Forero
November 5, 2011
The bookish communist intellectual who led the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, one of the world’s oldest insurgent groups, was killed Friday in a military strike in the biggest blow against that organization in its 47-year history.
Guillermo Saenz Vargas, who was better known to Colombians and American military advisers by the nom de guerre Alfonso Cano, was shot in a firefight with Colombian security forces during an operation in which the military bombed his position and deployed elite commandos, military officials said early Saturday morning.
The death occurred outside the town of Suarez in Cauca, a mountainous state in Colombia’s southwest that for years has been an epicenter of conflict between the armed forces and the FARC.
“The death of Alfonso Cano, the No. 1 commander of the FARC, has been confirmed,” President Juan Manuel Santos said in a brief nationally televised address shortly after midnight. “It is the biggest blow against the FARC in all its history.”

(more…)

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Colombia: Authorities Capture Kidnapper Of US Military Contractors

     Right on!  This is great news and I hope this bastard rots in a Colombian prison for a long time.  I am sure these guys below are happy as well. –Matt

‘Colombia captures kidnapper of US military contractors’

Tuesday, 22 February 2011

By Adriaan Alsema

Colombia’s Defense Minister said Tuesday authorities have arrested a FARC guerrilla held responsible for the 2003 kidnapping of three American military contractors.

According to Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera, the detainee is Alexander Beltran, alias “Rodrigo Pirinolo,” whose extradition was requested by the United States.

Following the crash of their airplane in the south of Colombia in February 2003, Northrop Grumman employees Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes were held captive by FARC guerrillas.

They were held hostage until July 2008 when the Colombian army rescued them, along with French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and 11 members of the Colombian security forces in Operation Checkmate.

Story here.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Colombia: FARC Military Leader Mono Jojoy Death Is Blow To Four-Decade Insurgency

They said Operation Sodom, as it has been dubbed, started on Tuesday 21 September, when the heads of all three branches of the Colombian military, the police and the Ministry of Defence met in Bogota to finalise details of the attack.

In the early hours of Wednesday 22 September, 78 aircraft headed for the area known as La Escalera in the Macarena mountain range in Meta province.

They dropped dozens of bombs on Mono Jojoy’s camp, which Defence Minister Rodrigo Rivera has described as “the mother of all lairs” for its size and the number of hidden tunnels it had.

About 400 members of the Colombian special forces then abseiled from helicopters and surrounded the camp.

After hours of fighting, another 400 soldiers and police moved in on the camp, taking it in the early hours of Thursday morning. 

*****

     What can I say?  This is an incredible stroke of luck for the Colombian government in their war against the FARC, and bravo to them for pulling off such an operation.

     The first thing that jumped up at me was how they were able to find out who the boot manufacturer was that Mono used to make his custom made jungle boots.  Because from that little tip, this entire operation was grown.  Basically, once they had a fix on these boots, they were able to slip a GPS tracking device into them and follow the path these boots made from shop to secret jungle camp.

     Once the location was found, you can see from the quote up top that the government forces quickly took advantage.  They knew what they had, and they put everything they had into being successful.

     The use of their Embraer Super Tucanos in this operation is very interesting.  With these things, the cost of the air operation is significantly cheaper.  This aircraft is also getting a lot of looks from other countries who are fighting insurgencies where their enemies do not have jet aircraft or any serious air power.  The reasoning here is that why use multi-million dollar jets that cost thousands of dollars an hour to fuel and maintain, when you can accomplish the same task with cheaper prop aircraft?  Colombia is definitely proving the validity of the concept.

     The capture of computer hardware is impressive as well. I would suspect that the FARC is sweating bullets right now because everyone on Mono’s hard drive will now be a target. Expect to see more clean up operations designed to demoralize the FARC, and drive them to either dissolve or just surrender. I certainly hope that Colombia is able to break their will and sink this pathetic drug fueled organization. (Mexican drug cartels, you’re next. lol)

     Now onto some lessons here. The whole GPS in the boot trick is pretty damn cool and I think any chance we can do the same thing with other enemies in today’s various insurgencies would be a good thing. I say the smaller you can make the device, the better, and make it sturdy enough to insert in all and any objects.  Even troops in Afghanistan could be putting GPS devices in all types of things that the enemy could possibly pick up and want to use. These devices should not be just the tools of specialists, and they should be viewed as the tool of modern day combat trackers.

     One area that the GPS trick might be well served, is in the endeavor to track animals for anti-poacher operations.  Eeben Barlow talked about the Rhino poaching problem in South Africa the other day, and I think small GPS tracking devices would be very helpful in anti-poaching operations.

    Better yet, Joseph Kony of the LRA could be tracked using the same method the Colombians used against Mono Jojoy. Either set up some child’s AK with a GPS in the stock, or introduce several of these devices somehow into the possession of this group.  Any way possible to track these folks should be looked at and planned for. If you strive to know your enemy, you should be able to find some weakness or opening at one point in your hunt for him. The imagination is the only limit and the pay off would be incredible. –Matt

FARC Military Leader Suárez’s Death Is Blow to Four-Decade Insurgency

Colombian police examine Farc rebels’ laptops

A chip hidden in the boots of Mono Jojoy allowed to locate in the jungle

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FARC Deaths

The bodies of guerrillas killed, including Mono Jojoy.

Colombia Kills Guerrilla Chief

FARC Military Leader Suárez’s Death Is Blow to Four-Decade Insurgency

By JOSé DE CóRDOBA And DARCY CROWE

BOGOTA—Colombia’s army killed the military leader of the country’s communist guerrillas in a two-day battle that involved airstrikes against his jungle bunker, dealing a major blow to the four-decade insurgency, officials said Thursday.

Victor Suárez, 57 years old, nicknamed “Mono Jojoy,” was the second in command and top field marshal of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, Latin America’s biggest and oldest guerrilla group. To many ordinary Colombians, his thick moustache and Che Guevara-style black beret were synonymous with the FARC.

“Mono Jojoy is dead,” Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos told reporters in New York, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly. “This is the most devastating blow ever dealt to the FARC.”

The strike was a big boost for Mr. Santos, who took office in August. He dubbed the military mission, which involved more than 30 aircraft, “Operation Welcome.” In his role as defense minister under Colombia’s previous president, Álvaro Uribe, Mr. Santos oversaw some notable blows against the FARC.

(more…)

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Bounties: Three Share $500,000 For Tips On Bombed Rebels–Domingo Biojo Killed, Colombia

Filed under: Bounties,Colombia — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 3:33 AM

     Now I do not know if anyone will be able to receive a bounty from the DoS Narcotics Rewards Program, because Biojo was worth about $2.5 million dollars.(see the reward below)

     The $500,000 divided up between these three folks must have come from the government of Colombia?  Who knows, but either way, good on them for providing the tips. –Matt

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Biojo

Domingo Biojo.

Colombia: 3 share $500K for tips on bombed rebels

09/21/2010

Colombia’s national police chief says three informants will divide a reward of up to $500,000 for leading authorities to the rebel camp where the military killed at least 22 insurgents in an air raid.

Gen. Oscar Naranjo also said Monday that a prominent veteran of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, or FARC, was killed in Sunday’s pre-dawn bombing near the border with Ecuador.

He identified the slain rebel as Domingo Biojo (Bee-oh-HO), a 55-year-old who had spent half his life in the FARC.

Officials say the rebels killed Sunday were from the same FARC unit that killed eight police officers nine days earlier.

Sunday’s attack marked Colombia’s biggest military success since President Juan Manuel Santos took office Aug. 7.

Story here.

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Narcotics Rewards Program: Sixto Antonio Cabana Guillen

Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs

WANTED

Also known as “Domingo Bioho”

Date of Birth: 06/15/1955

Place of Birth: Cienaga, Magadalena, Colombia

Height: 1.77 meters,

Weight: Unknown

Hair: Black, Eyes: Brown

The FARC is a foreign terrorist organization in Colombia that was established in 1964 with a Marxist philosophy and the declared intent to overthrow the democratic Colombian government. The FARC is Latin America’s oldest, largest, most capable and best-equipped insurgency — with perhaps 12,000 fighters and thousands of supporters, mostly in rural areas. In addition to its attacks on Colombian military, political and economic targets, the FARC’s various fronts are deeply involved in narcotics trafficking, kidnapping for ransom, extortion, murder and other criminal activities. Today, the FARC controls the majority of cocaine manufacturing and distribution within Colombia, and is responsible for much of the world’s cocaine supply and what is trafficked to the United States.

(more…)

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