The FARC-EP has stated numerous times that the end of the zone would be the end of the dialog process. The U.S. government completed its shipment of 33 Huey attack helicopters on Jan. 28, days before the deadline. Sixteen more advanced Blackhawk helicopters are to be delivered in July. Nearly 500 U.S. military troops are on the ground in Colombia, with elite Special Forces troops positioned just 18 miles from the combat zone, according to a Jan. 24 Associated Press report. A massive military operation by U.S.-trained counterinsurgency troops opened up in the southern Putumayo province this month.
Pilots indiscriminately spray peasants' crops with deadly defoliants.
Survivors of the Jan. 17 massacre in El Chengue described Colombian army helicopters monitoring the town in the days before and the hours after the massacre. The military also followed a now-standard practice of sealing the area, allowing only the death squads into and out of the zone. This is the impact of Plan Colombia. The ELN is a smaller revolutionary insurgency that has been fighting the Colombian government since 1964. Like the FARC-EP, the ELN has demanded a cleared zone to hold talks.