U.S. and Colombian officials categorically deny that the U.S. is directly involved in the war, insisting that America provides only training and intelligence to the Colombian authorities to fight the drug war. The U.S., whose personnel provide support at the Tres Esquinas military base south of San Vicente del Caguan, already is supplying intelligence from satellites and spy planes to Colombia, whose drug czars supply most of the cocaine sold on American streets. In recent years, with the threat of war spilling into oil-rich Venezuela and the Panama Canal, Washington has fretted over Colombia's inability to fight the FARC, a force of 15,000 that by some estimates controls at least half of Colombia. Bogota has become the third-largest recipient of U.S. aid, behind Israel and Egypt. Although U.S. aid to Colombia has steadily increased in recent years, the CIA says coca cultivation is increasing in the region the rebels control in the south.
Authorities attribute the rise to new varieties of coca and to new refining techniques.
According to political analysts, the battle in Colombia is no longer a battle over ideology, but a battle over so-called narcodollars, with the FARC and its nemeses, the paramilitaries, playing a larger role in the drug trade. An attack on coca production, therefore, is seen as an attack on a vital source of rebel income. Reyes, the FARC commander, denied a role in the drug trade, insisting the rebels get most of their money from extortion and kidnappings. Remember, he said, that the FARC was a formidable enemy long before cocaine trafficking flourished in Colombia. The FARC launched its rebellion in 1964.