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INTERDICTION OF NARCOTICS

Mr. MURTHA. I appreciate your optimistic assessment of the area. You say there were 60 tons of narcotics interdicted. Was that by our military or was that in the whole area or in cooperation with others? What are the details there?

General JoULWAN. Primarily it was by the police of the host nation with assistance by the military.

Mr. MURTHA. By their military?

General JOULWAN. Yes, not by ours, and that was in Colombia. Mr. MURTHA. Just in Colombia?

General JoULWAN. Fifty-three tons in Colombia. If I can, Mr. Chairman, the chart that shows that-and I believe it is chart number 32-if I can refer to chart 32, that shows it by country, and the retail value I am told is $13 billion. The key though is it is taking 500 million hits of cocaine off the streets.

[CLERK'S NOTE.-Classified discussion removed.]

FUTURE LOCATION OF CINCSOUTH HEADQUARTERS

Mr. MURTHA. Now, one of the questions we have asked in the past is whether the Southern Command should be in Panama or whether we should move it back to the United States. Do you feel there is any need to have it in Panama or would we be better off having it back in the United States?

We were concerned that maybe we were paying too much attention to Central America and not enough attention to South America.

General JoULWAN.

PANAMANIAN JAILBREAK

Mr. MURTHA. I want to also compliment you on the way you handled that jailbreak in Panama on December 4-5, because your troops reacted quickly, but you reacted the right way, you did it with a request from their President and it really was a magnificent job by yourself and your Command, because that could have been a very dangerous situation.

I don't remember if anybody was killed, but I know it was a wellhandled operation from the start to the finish and my compliments to you for the way you handled it.

General JOULWAN. Thank you, but I would also add that the Panamanians did not do as badly as they were portrayed in this incident. I think it may be useful to mention that President Endara met with his cabinet about midnight that night, met with his National Security Council and decided to ask for assistance from the United States, so the appropriate process was working.

If this criminal who broke out of jail and was leading this revolt had gone out the front gate of the police headquarters, he would have confronted 80 to 100 Panamanian police.

Instead he broke a hole in the fence and met a back-up of three American GI's who fell back to a squad which fell back to a platoon. Then without firing a shot, they took these 50-100 dissidents down without serious injury.

Mr. MURTHA. Do you see any improvement in the PDF down there?