TIPs and Salsa

[pms]

Presenting a cool face to the country, Uribe outlined his plans for a
million-member civilian intelligence network that has been among the most
controversial of his security proposals. He introduced the first 600
volunteers of the Civilian Informant Network in Cesar, a northeastern
province that has been plagued by guerrilla kidnappings.

Uribe said the volunteers would not be armed, at least not to start.

As governor of Colombia's largest province in the mid-1990s, Uribe embraced
a similar program that put civilians to work as government informants. But
several of those groups began working with paramilitary forces, helping the
group drive out guerrillas by attacking their suspected civilian support.

Aware of those concerns, Uribe placed the new network under control of Luis
Carlos Restrepo, a psychiatrist by training who is serving as Uribe's peace
commissioner, rather than under the military. The volunteers, however, will
receive at least some military training.

"Let's not make this too complicated. We must go forward," Uribe said. "Here
we have a huge risk to 40 million Colombians. If we all work together, we
will get rid of that risk."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61661-2002Aug8.html