The
U.S. military is investigating what has gone wrong with its operations in Colombia, where troops have been arrested on suspicion of smuggling drugs and selling arms to far-right militias, a senior U.S. officer said on Wednesday.
Colombian police arrested two American soldiers last week on suspicion of planning to sell stolen ammunition to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, an outlawed far-right militia group classified as "terrorist" by the United States.
Just over a month earlier, another five troops were detained in the United States for allegedly trying to smuggle hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cocaine on a U.S. military aircraft leaving Colombia.
The arrests damaged the image of the large U.S. anti-drug operation here and led to calls by some Colombian officials and lawmakers for revision of a treaty granting immunity from prosecution to American personnel.
Plan Colombia has always been a disaster, both for American and Colombia.
Colombia is a particularily dangerous place for labor leaders. More than 500 have been killed since 2001. Most of them trying to organize at businesses operated by American corporations.