VZCZCXYZ0003
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBO #1401/01 0592129
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 282129Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY BOGOTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3041
INFO RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 7422
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 8746
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ FEB LIMA 4811
RUEHZP/AMEMBASSY PANAMA 0028
RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO 5460
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC//USDP ADMIN/CHAIRS//

UNCLAS BOGOTA 001401 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER PGOV PREL MARR EAID PROP CO
SUBJECT: COLOMBIAN MILITARY CIVIL AFFAIRS UNIT PLANS CHANGES 
 
REF: BOGOTA (2006) 10526 
 
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Summary 
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¶1.  The Colombian military's civil affairs unit works to win 
the hearts and minds of civilian populations.  A new 
commander hopes to increase its effectiveness with fresh 
ideas and additional resources.  End Summary. 
 
------------------------ 
Winning Hearts and Minds 
------------------------ 
 
¶2.  The concept of civil affairs in the Colombian military 
civil affairs has dramatically expanded in recent years.  For 
decades, every branch and level of the Colombian military had 
a civil affairs unit that focused on small scale 
infrastructure projects.  In 2001, the Ministry of Defense 
announced a new strategy, entitled Accion Integral ("AI"), to 
strengthen state institutions and protect the public by 
coordinating military, political and social activities.  The 
government began implementing the AI strategy in 2003:  civil 
affairs became AI, a general officer took command of the new 
unit, and an integrated joint staff, with psy-ops specialists 
and public affairs officers, was created. 
 
¶3.  AI works throughout Colombia, but its main goal is 
building public support for the government in areas where 
state  presence is weak.  In 2006 activities focused in the 
departments of Choco, Norte de Santander, Cauca, Narino and 
Arauca.  AI also has programs to boost troop moral and to 
encourage deserters from illegal armed groups.  AI's main 
tools are information campaigns, outreach programs, and 
community projects.  Multimedia information campaigns use 
television, radio, and print to improve the government's 
image and demoralize illegal armed groups.  Most humanitarian 
outreach programs ("jornadas") involve medical personnel 
traveling to an area for a short time to establish health 
clinics.  Since 2003, AI has also spent between USD 500,000 
and USD one million per year on community projects such as 
roads, schools, and health clinics. 
 
¶4.  AI gradually ramped up its activities between 2004-2006. 
Personnel increased each year by between 5-10 percent, there 
are now about 1,200 soldiers in AI.  The number of 
humanitarian outreach programs also went up over the past 
three years by about 50 percent, while spending rose from USD 
750,000 per year to USD 830,000 per year.  Military analysts 
participating in jornadas generally rate them as successful 
in raising public confidence in the government generally and 
the military specifically. 
 
¶5.    AI supports, and is sometimes confused with, the Centro 
de Coordinacion de Accion Integral (CCAI).  CCAI is an 
interagency group promoting short-term social and economic 
development in nine "priority" zones where security has 
recently been established (reftel).  The military, including 
AI, participates in an interagency group that determines 
CCIA's priorities and programs.  About 10 percent of AI's 
outreach programs in 2006 were done together with CCAI. 
Still, coordination between AI and CCAI is a challenge.  At 
CCIA meeting on February 19, Vice-Minister of Defense Sergio 
Jaramillo questioned whether CCAI's priority zones were 
appropriate and suggested that the group consider other areas 
as well. 
 
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New Directions for Accion Integral 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶6.  AI's new commander thinks AI can do better, especially if 
it gets additional resources.  Captain (scheduled to become 
admiral in December of 2007) Alberto Bejarano Marin took 
command of AI in late 2006.  He said AI has been handicapped 
by insufficient resources and is sometimes seen as a dead-end 
job in the Colombian military.  Bejarano also thinks AI 
suffers from the absence of a consistent strategy:  different 
commands develop projects and disseminate messages in an ad 
hoc fashion. 
 
¶7.  Bejarano plans to address these problems by changing AI's 
 
command structure to centralize its activities and hiring 
consultants to create a unified message. The new 
communications strategy will be in place by March 2007. 
Bejarano is also reaching out to groups with whom the 
military has a rocky relationship, including Afro-Colombian 
and indigenous communities, human rights groups, and the 
press.  He thinks this will help AI identify problems in 
advance, rather than reacting to situations as they occur. 
Still, the real difference could be money.  Bejarano hopes to 
receive an additional USD 25 million for construction from 
the funds generated by the "wealth tax."  If AI gets the 
money, Bejarano says he will add 650 new personnel to form 
four mobile engineering companies.  Construction projects 
will still include traditional community projects, such as 
schools and health clinics, but the focus will shift to 
critical infrastructure (water and sewage systems, roads, and 
power production and distribution). 
 
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Comment 
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¶8.  The Ministry of Defense may not give Bejarano all the 
funding he wants:  the percentage of the "wealth tax" 
allocated to AI has steadily shrunk, and the request for 
construction funding was already cut from USD 50 million. 
Even if Bejarano gets the increased resources he hopes for, 
"in-house" construction of this magnitude could bog AI down 
administratively and distract it from other facets of its 
mission.  Still, AI's goals and methods are consistent with 
the GOC's focus on using "soft" tools to win over civilian 
populations.  The administration's latest "Strategy for 
Strengthening Democracy and Social Development" for 2007-2013 
says that coordinated civil and military effort is the key to 
controlling territory, and that political and social actions 
are more important than military ones.  End Comment. 
DRUCKER