A Colombian Town Caught in a Cross Fire

The bombing of Santo Domingo shows how messy U.S. involvement in the Latin American drug war can be.

T. CHRISTIAN MILLER, Times Staff Writer

March 17, 2002

SANTO DOMINGO, Colombia -- Death came to Santo Domingo as its people celebrated life.

Villagers were gathering for a street fair that bright December morning, but a battle had broken out between the Colombian army and leftist rebels in the nearby jungle.

The villagers heard a military helicopter roar overhead. Seconds later, an explosion ripped through this collection of wood huts on the edge of Colombia's northeastern plain.

Two children were cut down as their grandmother made them breakfast. A father was eviscerated as his sons watched. A nursing mother was nearly decapitated, her 3-month-old baby still in her arms.

In all, 11 adults and seven children died in Santo Domingo on Dec. 13, 1998. On the surface, the attack seems to be another bit of homemade carnage in Colombia's long, bloody guerrilla war, notable, perhaps, only for the number of children who died.

But according to Colombian military court records, the U.S. government helped initiate military operations around Santo Domingo that day, and two private American companies helped plan and support them.

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(Originally published at:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-031702swamp.story)