https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/437/accident.shtml

Colombian soldiers operating near the town of Jamundi in the Valle region shot and killed 10 undercover anti-drug police in a case of mistaken identity, Colombian officials said Monday. The soldiers also killed a civilian informant.

"I regret to announce that an accident occurred that resulted in the death of 10 police officers and one civilian," Defense Minister Camilo Ospina told a Bogota press conference. An inquiry has begun, he said. Those killed were members of the judicial police working on dismantling a drug trafficking operation, officials said.

This is only the latest "friendly fire" incident to befall Colombia. At least 30 police or soldiers have died in similar incidents in the last two years, the most notorious of which was the Guaitarilla shoot-out in March 2004, when soldiers killed seven policemen and four civilians. The slow-moving investigation into that incident has occasioned loud criticism and charges of cover-ups by police and the military.

President Alvaro Uribe, who stands for re-election on Sunday, called the killings "extremely serious" and urged investigators to "quickly tell the country the whole truth so this doesn't turn into another Guaitarilla." While Uribe, who is backed by the United States, is expected to emerge victorious on Sunday, at least in part because of his hard-line approach to the country's drug trade and guerrilla conflict, he has also been criticized for pushing security forces to the point that deadly mistakes occur -- like Monday's misbegotten massacre.

The United States has supported Colombia's war on coca and cocaine and, since 2002, its fight with the leftist FARC guerrillas, with about $5 billion in aid since 2000. But as much coca is being grown there as when the US funding spigot opened.

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