Revealed: UK military unit in Colombia \u2018assisted\u2019 police force that...<\/h2><\/a>\n READ MORE <\/i><\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nCoup preparations<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nGeneral Charry selected two high-ranking Colombian military officials, Colonel Calixto Cascante and Lieutenant Colonel Oscar Botero Restrepo, for secret British training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Botero was relatively unknown to British planners, IRD field officer Keith Morris described Cascante as \u201cthe most experienced and best qualified intelligence expert the Colombian Armed Forces possess\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of Britain\u2019s key objectives in providing the training was to curry favour with the Colombian military in the case of a coup. As British ambassador to Colombia William H. Young noted, \u201cwith the military so much in the news elsewhere in the continent it is worth having a look at some recent moves at the top of the Colombian Armed Forces\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the beginning of the 1960s, the military had seized power in neighbouring Brazil, Ecuador, and Panama, as well as in Argentina and Bolivia. Britain had supported<\/a> the coup in Brazil and played no small role<\/a> in propaganda operations designed to insulate the dictatorship from criticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\nYoung continued, \u201cone of our tasks here must clearly be to keep contact with the Army so that if they do intervene we will not find ourselves without lines to the government.\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added: \u201cIn this context it is very important that we should be able to fulfil an offer we have made to the Army, through General Charry, to send two intelligence officers to the UK next year\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1967, Keith Morris, the IRD field officer in Bogot\u00e1, Colombia\u2019s capital, outlined Britain\u2019s other commercial and strategic interests in Colombia. The country \u201chas considerable untapped resources\u201d and \u201cCommunist guerrillas based in Colombia could threaten the Panama Canal (a Colombian Communist Government might renew Colombian claims to Panama) and could easily create chaos in the Venezuelan oil fields which are in the frontier region\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n
\n RELATED<\/h3>\n \n \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n Revealed: Secretive British anti-crime agency spent millions training Colombia\u2019s repressive...<\/h2><\/a>\n READ MORE <\/i><\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nSecret training in \u2018psychological warfare\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nThe Foreign Office agreed to provide Cascante and Botero with three months of training at the School of Military Intelligence in Ashford, Kent, followed by a fortnight of secret training with the IRD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The training with the IRD was so secretive that not even the Colombian embassy in London was informed about it. Instead, the embassy was told that the officers would be taking a two week \u201choliday in London\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The training was so secretive not even the Colombian embassy in London was informed about it<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Cascante and Botero\u2019s training with the IRD lasted between 22 June and 3 July 1970. \u201cThe basic purpose of the course\u201d, wrote senior IRD official Elizabeth Rosemary Allott, \u201cis to equip them with sufficient specialist knowledge to set up a small IRD-type unit within the [Colombian] Ministry of Defence\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Part of the training included a session at the psychological operations section of the Joint Warfare Establishment at Old Sarum \u2013 a military base which offered extensive training in psychological warfare and covert operations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to one document produced by the Joint Warfare Establishment, the aim<\/a> of psychological operations was to: \u201cSupport the efforts of all other measures, military and political, against an enemy, to weaken his will to continue hostilities and to reduce his capacity to wage war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nIt added: \u201cPsychological warfare relates to an emergency or a state of hostilities, and it is with the further subdivisions of strategic psywar, tactical psywar and psychological consolidation that its employment can best be examined\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Similar training had already been given to two members of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in June 1969, and plausibly included<\/a> instruction in \u201cspecial interrogation\u201d techniques \u2013 an allusion to torture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RELATED<\/h3>\n \n \n \n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n British diplomats seek to \u201cimprove perceptions\u201d of UK in repressive...<\/h2><\/a>\n READ MORE <\/i><\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nBritain and Colombia<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nBritish involvement in Colombia\u2019s counter-insurgency conflict thus began long before it became publicly known. This training supplemented wide-ranging US counter-insurgency measures, which during the 1960s involved<\/a> recommending the use of \u201ccounter-agent and counter-propaganda functions [and] as necessary [to] execute paramilitary, sabotage, and\/or terrorist activities\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDuring Tony Blair\u2019s government, British military collaboration<\/a> with Colombia reached new heights, and seemed to replicate Britain\u2019s secret Cold War military assistance. In 1999, UK defence minister John Spellar told<\/a> parliament that \u201cadvisory visits and information exchanges\u201d had taken place between Colombia and Britain, focussing \u201con operations in urban theatres, counter-guerrilla strategy, and psychiatry\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAt this time, oil corporation BP was one of Colombia\u2019s largest foreign direct investors<\/a>.As Declassified UK<\/em> recently revealed, British military collaboration with Colombia is ongoing, with the army assisting<\/a> in Colombia\u2019s internal security operations, despite massive human rights abuses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Recently declassified British files reveal how the Foreign Office prepared for a possible military coup in Colombia by secretly training the country\u2019s armed forces in psychological warfare. In 1970, Britain\u2019s Cold War propaganda arm, the Information Research Department (IRD), secretly provided two weeks of counter-insurgency instruction to high-ranking Colombian military officials. Part of the course […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":3974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,234,6],"tags":[150],"coauthors":[222],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
UK prepared for coup in Colombia by training military in psychological warfare<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n
General Charry selected two high-ranking Colombian military officials, Colonel Calixto Cascante and Lieutenant Colonel Oscar Botero Restrepo, for secret British training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Botero was relatively unknown to British planners, IRD field officer Keith Morris described Cascante as \u201cthe most experienced and best qualified intelligence expert the Colombian Armed Forces possess\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of Britain\u2019s key objectives in providing the training was to curry favour with the Colombian military in the case of a coup. As British ambassador to Colombia William H. Young noted, \u201cwith the military so much in the news elsewhere in the continent it is worth having a look at some recent moves at the top of the Colombian Armed Forces\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the beginning of the 1960s, the military had seized power in neighbouring Brazil, Ecuador, and Panama, as well as in Argentina and Bolivia. Britain had supported<\/a> the coup in Brazil and played no small role<\/a> in propaganda operations designed to insulate the dictatorship from criticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Young continued, \u201cone of our tasks here must clearly be to keep contact with the Army so that if they do intervene we will not find ourselves without lines to the government.\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He added: \u201cIn this context it is very important that we should be able to fulfil an offer we have made to the Army, through General Charry, to send two intelligence officers to the UK next year\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1967, Keith Morris, the IRD field officer in Bogot\u00e1, Colombia\u2019s capital, outlined Britain\u2019s other commercial and strategic interests in Colombia. The country \u201chas considerable untapped resources\u201d and \u201cCommunist guerrillas based in Colombia could threaten the Panama Canal (a Colombian Communist Government might renew Colombian claims to Panama) and could easily create chaos in the Venezuelan oil fields which are in the frontier region\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n The Foreign Office agreed to provide Cascante and Botero with three months of training at the School of Military Intelligence in Ashford, Kent, followed by a fortnight of secret training with the IRD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The training with the IRD was so secretive that not even the Colombian embassy in London was informed about it. Instead, the embassy was told that the officers would be taking a two week \u201choliday in London\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The training was so secretive not even the Colombian embassy in London was informed about it<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Cascante and Botero\u2019s training with the IRD lasted between 22 June and 3 July 1970. \u201cThe basic purpose of the course\u201d, wrote senior IRD official Elizabeth Rosemary Allott, \u201cis to equip them with sufficient specialist knowledge to set up a small IRD-type unit within the [Colombian] Ministry of Defence\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Part of the training included a session at the psychological operations section of the Joint Warfare Establishment at Old Sarum \u2013 a military base which offered extensive training in psychological warfare and covert operations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to one document produced by the Joint Warfare Establishment, the aim<\/a> of psychological operations was to: \u201cSupport the efforts of all other measures, military and political, against an enemy, to weaken his will to continue hostilities and to reduce his capacity to wage war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It added: \u201cPsychological warfare relates to an emergency or a state of hostilities, and it is with the further subdivisions of strategic psywar, tactical psywar and psychological consolidation that its employment can best be examined\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Similar training had already been given to two members of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in June 1969, and plausibly included<\/a> instruction in \u201cspecial interrogation\u201d techniques \u2013 an allusion to torture.<\/p>\n\n\n British involvement in Colombia\u2019s counter-insurgency conflict thus began long before it became publicly known. This training supplemented wide-ranging US counter-insurgency measures, which during the 1960s involved<\/a> recommending the use of \u201ccounter-agent and counter-propaganda functions [and] as necessary [to] execute paramilitary, sabotage, and\/or terrorist activities\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During Tony Blair\u2019s government, British military collaboration<\/a> with Colombia reached new heights, and seemed to replicate Britain\u2019s secret Cold War military assistance. In 1999, UK defence minister John Spellar told<\/a> parliament that \u201cadvisory visits and information exchanges\u201d had taken place between Colombia and Britain, focussing \u201con operations in urban theatres, counter-guerrilla strategy, and psychiatry\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At this time, oil corporation BP was one of Colombia\u2019s largest foreign direct investors<\/a>.As Declassified UK<\/em> recently revealed, British military collaboration with Colombia is ongoing, with the army assisting<\/a> in Colombia\u2019s internal security operations, despite massive human rights abuses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently declassified British files reveal how the Foreign Office prepared for a possible military coup in Colombia by secretly training the country\u2019s armed forces in psychological warfare. In 1970, Britain\u2019s Cold War propaganda arm, the Information Research Department (IRD), secretly provided two weeks of counter-insurgency instruction to high-ranking Colombian military officials. Part of the course […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":3974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,234,6],"tags":[150],"coauthors":[222],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRELATED<\/h3>\n
Revealed: Secretive British anti-crime agency spent millions training Colombia\u2019s repressive...<\/h2><\/a>\n READ MORE <\/i><\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Secret training in \u2018psychological warfare\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
RELATED<\/h3>\n
British diplomats seek to \u201cimprove perceptions\u201d of UK in repressive...<\/h2><\/a>\n READ MORE <\/i><\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Britain and Colombia<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n