A History of Private Contractors and Aerial Fumigation in Colombia

ISSN 2054-2046 Above the Law, Under the Radar: A History of Private Contractors and Aerial Fumigation in Colombia Ross Eventon and Dave Bewley-Taylor Policy Report 4 | February 2016 Above the Law, Under the Radar: A History of Private Contractors and Aerial Fumigation in Colombia Ross Eventon* and Dave Bewley-Taylor¥ Policy Report 4 | February 2016 Key Points: • The employment of private military and security companies (PMSCs) to carry out government policies has grown exponentially over the past two decades. • Conventional explanations for this rise, such as cost-saving and down-sizing, do not appear convincing, given the evidence. Instead, it seems national governments are paying a premium to enjoy two major benefits of outsourcing: secrecy and a lack of accountability. • Aerial fumigation of illicit crops in Colombia, backed financially, diplomatically and logistically by Washington, is a case in point. The ineffective policy is of dubious legality, causes damage to people and the environment, and would, if carried out by US military forces, imply the direct involvement of the US in Colombia’s civil war, thereby triggering the application of international law as it applies to armed conflict. • Moreover, there is substantial evidence suggesting that fumigation, while failing in its officially declared goals, does achieve strategic objectives for Washington and Bogota through the displacement of the rural population from areas of insurgent influence. • For Colombia, the presence of foreign contractors has implied a significant undermining of national sovereignty. In addition, it has removed any viable recourse for citizens subject to human rights violations by contractors - whether during the course of fumigation operations or otherwise. INTRODUCTION The number of professional entities employed number of contractors working for the US by governments to fulfil military tasks is by now government grew to exceed that of regular unprecedented.1 Increased demand over the military personnel in-country.2 Prior to the past two decades, primarily from the United 1990s, certain logistical and construction States, has engendered a drastic increase work had been outsourced by the US military, in both the size and scope of outsourced but it was over the course of that decade operations. During the first Gulf War, a that the first boom took place for the outfits reported one in every one hundred deployed now commonly referred to as private military US personnel was a private contractor. By and security companies (PMSCs). Contractors 2001, the US Department of Defense was were employed by the US government mainly already considered to be employing around to carry out logistics, construction, training 700,000 full and part-time contractors, and and, in the Andean region, engage in certain following the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the elements of the so-called War on Drugs.3 A * GDPO Research Associate (Lead author) ¥ GDPO Director 1 second and larger expansion of the industry explore not only the dynamics of the decision followed the US-led invasions of Afghanistan to outsource fumigation, but also the context and Iraq: Washington opted to outsource for the continuation and even expansion of various military and non-military tasks, and a harmful, destructive and ostensibly failing the number of PMSCs grew to take advantage policy. It is hoped that a holistic understanding of the demand; services covering the spectrum of this episode in the drug policy of Colombia of operations began to be offered. Estimates will help inform debates around future options now put the size of the global market at well within the country, including those following over US$100 billion a year. Growth has been the indefinite suspension of aerial fumigation slowing due to market saturation and the in May 2015. winding down of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but there are no signs the trend towards privatisation of military services is being reversed; traditional arms companies have THE BENEFITS OF OUTSOURCED WAR been expanding into the field, hoping to take Over the past two decades the image of the advantage of the lucrative opportunities. lone mercenary, the quintessential solider of fortune, has been replaced by a professional The United States is overwhelmingly the entity offering a range of military services. The largest employer of PMSCs – followed by the UK-based NGO War on Want has discussed the United Kingdom4 – and is where the majority rise of these organisations that ‘have moved of such companies are based. Out in the field, from the periphery of international politics contractors are employed in almost every into the corporate boardroom, and are now element of US military operations, from back- seeking to become a respectable part of the end logistics, to strategic consultancy, to military sector’: direct involvement in hostilities. Corporations have also recognised the advantages, turning Today, the PMSC industry comprises hundreds of to hired arms to protect their assets and companies operating in more than 50 countries infrastructure. The work carried out by PMSCs worldwide and working for governments, is broad and diverse: contractors are used in international institutions and corporations. air reconnaissance, mine clearance, aircraft They provide a wider array of services than maintenance, military and police training, traditional mercenaries, and employ better and provide private security for officials and public relations machines. They are involved infrastructure; they are often, from sites in the in direct combat, operational support, the US, controlling the lethal drones active over provision of security, intelligence gathering, Asia and the Middle East. During the occupation training, technical assistance and post-conflict of Iraq, security details, infrastructure reconstruction. PMSCs also encompass a wide protection, and even interrogation and torture variety of legal structures: private companies, were outsourced by the US military. And in companies listed on the stock market, and Latin America, PMSCs have been employed to subsidiaries of much larger entities. undertake maintenance of materiel, training, and, most controversially, aerial fumigation Important moral and legal questions are operations. It is this final element of the issue raised by fact that PMSCs have grown to area that will be examined in the pages that become integral parts of modern Western follow. With a focus on the case of Colombia, warfare. Numerous dedicated publications the report will explore the outsourcing of have discussed these issues in detail and the aerial fumigation of coca crops within the arguments will not be repeated here.5 the broader strategic objectives of the US Instead, a selection of the more consequential and Colombian governments. The aim is to implications, relevant to the topic being 2 discussed, will be mentioned. Perhaps most taken place amid a general preference among importantly, PMSCs, particularly in the manner US administrations for clandestine operations. they have been used by the US government, The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq relied heavily have provided an effective vehicle for skirting on Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and accountability and bypassing restrictions on Special Forces-run paramilitaries that are able the use of military forces overseas. Writing to act free from accountability and scrutiny in the Yale Journal of International Affairs, – beyond the occasional scandals unearthed Allison Stanger and Mark Eric Williams describe by journalists. Likewise, the secretive US this undermining of democracy as the first Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) benefit of outsourcing: has been given a greater role over the course of the wars, while the drone programme, In Eastern Europe, Latin America, South Asia, amounting to a global campaign of officially- and the Middle East, outsourcing has enabled denied extra-judicial assassination, provides Washington to undertake a diverse set of perhaps the most prominent example of strategic operations—and in some instances, modern ‘dark’ operations. Furthermore, as to do so without committing a large contingent both wars progressed and came under scrutiny, of U.S. troops. Such flexibility is especially information was increasingly classified and useful to presidents who pursue policies shielded from the public. These trends likely that lack strong support from Congress or represent a recognition among policy makers the American public. To illustrate this point, that they cannot openly deploy the kinds consider the extraordinary flexibility of of operations used in the past – in South U.S. policy in the former Yugoslavia, where East Asia in the 1960s for example. While it outsourcing enabled Washington to attain would be incorrect to claim the emergence three strategic advantages: influence the of a large market for PMSCs represents some balance of power on the ground, retain an fundamental change in foreign policy goals, it official position of ‘honest broker,’ and uphold is likely right, as Stanger and Williams point the 1991 UN embargo on weapons sales to any out, that employing contractors has allowed of the warring groups.6 the United States Government ‘to pursue a more ambitious foreign policy agenda In an unusually candid comment, one senior than its all-volunteer force might otherwise American official explained why it had been have allowed.’ In this sense, PMSCs are not useful to hire contractors from the US military particularly revolutionary: they are foreign services

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