DynCorp
in Colombia
DynCorp Aerospace
Technologies, founded in 1946 and based in Reston, Virginia, is a "technology
and services company" with over $1.8 billion in annual revenues,
a $4.4 billion contract backlog, and more than 23,000 employees worldwide,
according to its website. One of
the largest U.S. defense contractors, the company's contracts with over
37 federal agencies account for 98 percent of its business.
A May 2001 Department
of State Fact Sheet
discusses DynCorp's role in Colombia.
On its website, DynCorp
categorizes its contract with the State Department,
which centers on the aerial herbicide fumigation program, as one of the
company's "success stories." According to the website, DynCorp
has worked with the State Department's International Narcotics and Law
Enforcement aviation program since 1991, and the contract was renewed
in 1996.
In September 2001,
the International Labor Rights Fund, a U.S. non-profit group, brought
a lawsuit
against DynCorp on behalf of families reportedly harmed by aerial fumigation.
The State Department
contract:
As of
late March 2001, there were just over 100 U.S. citizen civilian contractors
with Dyncorp in Colombia, the majority of whom were in place well before
the legislation in support of Plan Colombia was enacted. An approximately
equal number of third country nationals and Colombian citizens are also
employed under this contract. These contractors work on counternarcotics
projects with the Antinarcotics Directorate (DIRAN) and air wing of
the Colombian National Police, and also support the Aviation Brigade
of the Colombian Army. [State
Department Fact Sheet, May 2001]
Last year,
Congress limited to 300 the number of civilian contract workers participating
in U.S.-financed drug-eradication efforts in Colombia. But in a little-noticed
decision, the State Department has counted only U.S. citizens toward
that limit. As a result, DynCorp has 335 civilians working on the anti-drug
campaign here but less than one-third are U.S. citizens. [Los
Angeles Times, August 18, 2001 - link to article text at Detroit
News]
Since
1997, DynCorp has operated under a $600 million-dollar State Department
contract in Latin America. But, according to its contract with the State
Department, recently acquired by CorpWatch, "mission deployments
may be made to any worldwide location, including, potentially, outside
of Central and South America." The company mainly "participates
in eradication missions, training, and drug interdiction, but also participates
in air transport, reconnaissance, search and rescue, airborne medical
evacuation, ferrying equipment and personnel from one country to another,
as well as aircraft maintenance," according to the contract. DynCorp
operates several State Department aircraft, including armed UH-1H Iroquois
and Bell-212 Huey-type helicopters and T-65 Thrush crop dusters. DynCorp
provides the pilots, technicians, and just about any kind of personnel
required to carry out the war in Colombia, including administrative
personnel. Some of its personnel in Colombia, such as its helicopter
pilots are Colombians, Peruvians, and Guatemalans, but most are from
the U.S. All must speak passable Spanish and English, and all must possess
U.S. government "Secret" personnel security clearances, except
in the cases of foreign contractors, where this requirement may be waived.
[Corpwatch.org,
May 23, 2001]
DynCorp
is tight lipped when it comes to its clients. Company spokesperson Janet
Wineriter refused to comment on the company's overseas operations. Nor
will the State Department make on-the-record statements about DynCorp's
operations. Company paramedic Michael Demons apparently recently died
of a heart attack on a Colombian military base and the U.S. Embassy
in Bogotá attempted to keep his death secret. Because Demons
was not a military officer and didn't work directly for the U.S. government,
there was no official report and his death was treated as if he were
a tourist. DynCorp has also lost three pilots in action. None of these
deaths were reported in the news media. [Corpwatch.org,
May 23, 2001]
Assistant
Secretary Beers: I can't speak to the DoD contractors and so you'll
have to ask that question at the Defense Department. But with respect
to the DynCorp contract, it has ranged over the last several years between
35 and 50 million dollars on an annual basis. The adjustment upward
has come really at the end of calendar year '99 and in calendar year
2000. It was below that prior to that. [State Department,
May 16, 2001]
Operations:
Members
of Search and Rescue (SAR) teams are believe to have engaged in about
15 rescues during the past six years, about half of them "hot extractions"
from combat areas where team members have been at risk, a source in
Bogota said. ...The teams usually include a pilot, copilot, a paramedic,
a door gunner and two rescue specialists. SAR teams are largely composed
of former U.S. special forces and normally stay in Colombian military
or police compounds, working for several weeks and then taking 15 days
off. They are under orders from DynCorp and U.S. officials to avoid
journalists. [Miami
Herald, Feb. 22, 2001 - link to article text at Yahoo Groups]
After
the pilot of one of the police helicopters was shot and forced to set
down, the five other helicopters - three of them piloted by DynCorp
employees - moved in and began shooting at rebel positions, said [Capt.
Luis Fernando] Aristizabal, a Colombian co-pilot of one of the Dyncorp-piloted
helicopters. He said the door gunners were all Colombians and that Americans
did not fire weapons during the mission. [Associated
Press, Feb. 21, 2001 - link to article text at Yahoo Groups]
Consequences:
As civilians,
their work and fate comes under less scrutiny. When a DynCorp paramedic
died of an apparent heart attack here in October, the U.S. Embassy handled
his case like the death of any American abroad, declining to release
information on his background or next of kin. [Miami
Herald,
Feb. 26, 2001 - link to article text at corpwatch.org]
