[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 54 (Thursday, May 4, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E657-E658]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E657]]
                    LEGENDARY DRUG FIGHTING GENERAL

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 4, 2000

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, the Los Angeles Times in a front page story 
of Wednesday May 3, 2000 profiled the legendary drug fighting General, 
and our good friend General Rosso Jose Serrano of the Colombian 
National Police (CNP), America's long, courageous ally in our war on 
drugs.
  The LA Times informative article outlines General Serrano's fight a 
against the drug cartels in Colombia and how he brought down both the 
powerful and violent Cali and Medillin drug cartels in his nation and 
fought successfully to rid the CNP of corruption, and develop a record 
of respect for human right at the same time. General Serrano is a 
worldwide legend in the fight against illicit drugs in Colombia, a 
leading drug producing nation in the world today.
  Most recently through two successful Operation Millenniums with our 
own DEA, General Serrano has continued the struggle of bringing the 
drug kingpins to justice and helping stem the flow of illicit drugs 
into our nation. On the eradication front with 6 new high performance 
Black Hawk utility helicopters to help eradicate opium poppy in the 
high Andes of Colombia the CNP under General Serrano's courageous 
leadership is making great strides in eliminating the source of the 
heroin flooding our nation. Since the first of the year the CNP with 
this new capacity have eradicated more than 3000 hectares of opium, 
source for more than 2\1/2\ tons of heroin that could have entered our 
nation.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that the Los Angeles Times article be printed here 
in its entirety so that my colleagues and our fellow Americans could 
learn more about the accomplishments of a cop's cop and America's good 
friend and ally.

               [From the Los Angeles Times, May 3, 2000]

                 To Colombians, He Is the War on Drugs

                          (By Juanita Darling)

       GUAYMARAL AIR BASE, Colombia--Dressed in a pale blue sport 
     coat instead of his usual olive green uniform, Gen. Rosso 
     Jose Serrano, Colombia's top police officer, stepped out of 
     his helicopter a few yards from the hangar where three U.S.--
     donated Black Hawks were undergoing the manufacturer's final 
     inspection.
       They were the last of six helicopters promised in 1998, 
     when the Colombian National Police became the first law 
     enforcement agency in the world to fly the military 
     helicopters. Serrano was here to thank the U.S. congressional 
     aides who had delivered them.
       He was especially grateful because, as the helicopters were 
     flying here, two more Black Hawks were pledged to police as 
     part of a $1.3-billion aid package before Congress to help 
     fight drugs in Colombia.
       For the general's congressional supporters, as for many 
     people in the United States and Colombia, Serrano and the 
     police are this nation's fight against drugs.
       Here, polls consistently rank the gray-haired general as 
     the nation's most popular public figure. Serrano kept U.S. 
     anti-drug money flowing in ever greater quantities even after 
     Colombia's previous president had his U.S. visa revoked 
     because of suspected ties to narcotics traffickers, and even 
     while a horrendous human rights record prevented the army 
     from receiving aid.
       At a time when U.S. officials
       But now, thanks in part to the effectiveness of the police, 
     the nature of the drug war in Colombia is changing. The fight 
     has spread from the cities to the countryside. The big 
     cartels have atomized into smaller, more flexible networks 
     that are believed to be run largely from Mexico and Miami.
       The success of eradication programs in Bolivia and Peru has 
     forced traffickers to move production of coca--the plant used 
     to make cocaine--into the Colombian jungles. That brings the 
     traffickers into partnerships with the brutal, heavily armed 
     leftist rebels and right-wing counterinsurgents who have been 
     fighting the Colombian government and each other for 36 
     years.
       Police, even with Black Hawks, do not have the equipment or 
     training to fight a drug war that is blurring into a 
     guerrilla war. The proposed U.S. aid package, which 
     emphasizes military hardware for the armed forces, reflects 
     those changes, as well as U.S. confidence in Colombia's 
     current president, Andres Pastrana.
       Serrano and the police are no longer the only 
     representatives of their country's fight against drugs. At 
     age 57, the general must guide the police into a new role of 
     cooperation with the armed forces and explain that role to 
     his supporters on Capitol Hill, who fear that he is being 
     discarded.
       ``Now we have to operate more on an international level, to 
     share more information and teach others from our 
     experience,'' Serrano said during an interview on his way to 
     the airport and an anti-narcotics seminar in Argentina. In 
     the same week, he had already met with the congressional 
     aides, visited a remote village where guerrillas had killed 
     21 police officers, attended their funerals and cut the 
     chains of a young kidnapping victim after police rescued her.
       Serrano's ability to anticipate change and respond has 
     allowed him to survive four defense ministers and two 
     presidents during his more than five years as police 
     director. That's impressive for a kid from the little town of 
     Velez who admits that he joined the police at age 17 because 
     he liked the uniform.
       ``Serrano is more than a great policeman,'' said Myles 
     Frechette, former U.S. ambassador to Colombia. ``He also has 
     a natural political instinct and he is patriotic.''
       Serrano has demonstrated those qualities by walking a 
     tightrope held on one end by his friends in the U.S. 
     government and on the other by sometimes jealous Colombian 
     politicians. The only safety net is his tremendous 
     popularity.
       In his 1999 autobiography, ``Checkmate,'' Serrano writes 
     that he has no idea why former President Ernesto Samper chose 
     him for director in 1994, skipping over half a dozen more 
     senior officers. He was not Samper's first choice, or even 
     his second, according to sources close to the decision-
     making.
       However, those sources said, U.S. officials made it clear 
     that anti-narcotics aid hinged on Serrano's heading the 
     police. Convinced that Samper's 1994 presidential campaign 
     had accepted $6 million from drug traffickers, the Americans 
     dealt directly with Serrano, ignoring the president and even 
     revoking his U.S. visa.
       Their anger with Samper overshadowed what Serrano said is 
     the police chief's greatest triumph: a two-year effort, ended 
     in 1996, to capture leaders of the Cali cartel. Even then, 
     the United States refused to certify Colombia as a fully 
     cooperative partner in the war against drugs.
       Nevertheless, anti-narcotics aid to Colombia--mainly for 
     the police--kept growing, from $85.6 million in 1997 to $289 
     million last year. And Serrano's popularity grew with it.
       When he visited an army base in Tolemaida last year with 
     the military high command, soldiers politely stepped past the 
     defense minister and armed forces commander to shake hands 
     with the top cop. After lunch, the kitchen staff shyly 
     emerged to ask Serrano to pose for a picture with them.
       ``It is difficult to provide him with security because 
     people rush toward him to touch him, to take a picture of 
     him,'' said Capt. Herman Bustamante, his chief of security 
     and the son of his close friend Herman Bustamante.
       Serrano's approval ratings come in close to 94% in most 
     recent surveys--which paradoxically, also show that 
     Colombians' biggest worry is safety in a country that 
     averages eight kidnappings a day.
       ``Everybody loves Gen. Serrano, but nobody loves the 
     police,'' said Maria Victoria Llorente, a crime researcher at 
     the prestigious Los Andes University. ``It's something I 
     cannot understand.''
       Her only explanation is that Colombians do not blame 
     Serrano for the lack of public safety because common crime 
     cannot be separated from the violence of this country's long-
     standing guerrilla war and drug trafficking.
       Serrano said he worries about public safety: ``I wish that 
     there were no narcotics and that we could concentrate on 
     crime.''
       Colombians appear to accept that reasoning and to respect 
     Serrano's reputation in a nation crippled by corruption. 
     ``The police are riding on the coattails of his prestige,'' 
     Llorente said. ``It is a cult of personality.''
       And Serrano undeniably has a magnetic personality.
       ``Everyone sees him as their father,'' said Jorge Serrano, 
     23, the youngest of his three children. ``He looks like a 
     teddy bear.''
       He is open about his humble origins as the son of a 
     seamstress and a meat salesman. Frechette recalled that 
     Serrano asked him to arrange for a used firetruck to be 
     delivered to Velez, about 100 miles north of the capital, 
     Bogota, through a U.S. program that allows the U.S. military 
     to transport the trucks when there is space on ships or 
     planes.
       Serrano is an avid tennis player, known for his ability to 
     put a spin on a ball so that it drops just past the net. A 
     well-publicized tennis game was used to hush rumors of a rift 
     between Serrano and Pastrana last year. ``The president 
     chooses him as his doubles partner,'' said the younger 
     Bustamante. ``It's better to have him on your side.''
       The general is never more human than at the all-too-
     frequent funerals for officers who have died in the line of 
     duty. Serrano visits the murder scene, often a remote village 
     that taken with the officers to raise their spirits. He 
     always serves as a pallbearer.
       ``He takes the loss of his boys seriously,'' said a 
     European diplomat. Because the government provides pensions 
     only for the windows and orphans of officers who have more 
     than 15 years of service, Serrano's wife, Hilde, runs a 
     private charity to benefit other families.
       ``He never abandons a subordinate in trouble, neither those 
     who have been attacked in battle or those who have faced 
     accusations,'' said Gen. Luis Enrique Montengro, his second 
     in command. ``People are confident that if they are loyal to 
     him, he will be loyal to them.''
       The most public example of that loyalty has been Serrano's 
     staunch defense of Maj.

[[Page E658]]

     Oscar Pimienta, a hero of the Cali cartel capture who was 
     accused last May of skimming U.S. aid. American officials are 
     still trying to work out how to conduct an audit that will 
     not compromise police security.
       When Judge Diego Coley ruled that there was enough evidence 
     to hold Pimienta for trial, he said, he was called to 
     Serrano's office. He surreptitiously recorded the upbraiding 
     that Serrano gave him, accusing the judge of trying to 
     destroy a brilliant police career and besmirch Serrano's 
     reputation.
       Coley filed a complaint with the attorney general over 
     Serrano's conduct. When newspapers published the story, radio 
     talk show hosts immediately sprang to Serrano's defense. 
     Callers to the shows disparaged Coley.
       ``Instead of hurting Serrano, this incident has increased 
     his popularity,'' Coley said. ``People think, ``Yes, the 
     general should put that judge in his place.' ''
       Coley, who was transferred a few days after the ruling, has 
     become disillusioned. ``I met him when he was a colonel and 
     he was friendly. Now he is arrogant--all he cares about is 
     his image.''
       Serrano does not discuss the incident, but his supporters 
     say he has good reason to suspect attempts to undermine his 
     reputation. In the midst of their operations against the Cali 
     cartel, Montenegro recalled, intelligence agents discovered 
     that drug traffickers had set up bank accounts in the Cayman 
     Islands in the names of Serrano and Montenegro in an attempt 
     to make it appear that the police officials had taken bribes.
       Further, corruption is a sensitive issue for Serrano, who 
     has dismissed more than 6,500 officers suspected of 
     ineffectiveness or dishonesty. The campaign began five years 
     ago, when half the Cali force was on the drug traffickers' 
     payroll.
       ``Dishonesty makes him angry,'' Herman Bustamante said. 
     ``He takes drastic measures when corruption is involved.''
       Serrano's anti-corruption campaign has made him enemies 
     among the dismissed officers, who Bustamante said are as much 
     a threat to the general and his family as the criminals he 
     has captured. As a result, the Serranos must travel with 
     escorts at all times.
       All have apartments in the same building--the general's is 
     the penthouse--with police security in the lobby and a 
     roadblock at the end of the street. They have lived this way 
     for a more than a decade.
       ``Our life changed,'' Jorge Serrano said. ``I had few 
     friends--only those who dared to be my friends. I had to go 
     everywhere in an armored car. With five bodyguards around all 
     the time, a person feels inhibited.''
       Even so, they do not feel safe. Jorge Serrano and his 
     family recently joined his brother and sister in exile.
       ``We understood that we had to make sacrifices,'' said the 
     younger Serrano during an interview on his last day in 
     Colombia. ``All that he had done for the country is reflected 
     in us. He is a dedicated person who believes that the more he 
     sacrifices, the harder he works, the better things will turn 
     out.''

     

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