Army Witness Arrested
Defensorķa del Pueblo
US Helicopter Destroyed
Colombian and US officials revealed on Jan. 24 that the Colombian military had destroyed a US government UH-1N "Huey" helicopter after it was shot down by the FARC on Jan. 18, in order to keep it from falling into the rebels' hands [see Update #625]. The military destroyed the plane after evacuating the crew, which included Colombian police officers and a Peruvian pilot working for DynCorp, a Reston, Virginia-based US State Department contractor. Five Colombian police officers died trying to protect the downed aircraft, and three army soldiers were wounded. Hovering over the downed chopper was a second Huey with a search- and-rescue team that included US nationals and Colombians also working for DynCorp, said Col. Carlos Rivera, deputy director of Colombia's anti-narcotics police force. That team was not called into action, he said. [Washington Post 1/25/02 from AP]
From the Weekly News Update on the Americas (ISSN 1084-922X), published by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York, 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012, 212-674-9499, wnu@igc.org.
