In the biggest drug-trafficking indictment in U.S. history, a grand jury charged leaders of Colombia's FARC guerrillas with running a drug network.

BY PABLO BACHELET AND STEVEN DUDLEY

BOGOTA - In an unprecedented legal move, the U.S. government Wednesday indicted the entire top leadership and 43 other commanders of Colombia's FARC guerrillas on charges of running a $25 billion drug trafficking network responsible for 60 percent of the cocaine on U.S. streets.

Accused in the indictment were Pedro Antonio Marín, aka Manuel ''Sureshot'' Marulanda, legendary leader of Latin America's largest and oldest leftist guerrilla organization, and all six other members of its ruling secretariat.

The indictment is likely to make it easier for the U.S. Congress to continue funding for Plan Colombia, a multibillion dollar effort to combat drug trafficking, and military aid for the conservative government of President Alvaro Uribe, one of the strongest U.S. allies in the region.

But analysts said it may not have much impact on an estimated 18,000-strong guerrilla force whose leaders are deeply entrenched in the far reaches of a country the size of France, flush with drug money and showing signs lately of recovering from a three-year-old military offensive.

If captured, however, the FARC leaders would face possible extradition to the United States to be tried on charges that could keep them in prison in the U.S. for decades.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has long been known to collect payments from coca farmers and drug traffickers, as well as businessmen, cattle ranchers and shop owners, to finance its four-decades-old insurgency.

But the indictment unveiled by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at a news conference in Washington alleges that the FARC has taken its involvement in the drug trade significantly further in recent years, earning as much as $25 billion.

''The FARC has evolved into the world's largest supplier of cocaine and cocaine paste,'' a semi-processed product that must be refined into cocaine, the indictment alleges.

''This is the largest narcotics-trafficking indictment ever filed in U.S. history and fuels our hope to reduce narco-violence in Colombia and stem the tide of illegal drugs entering our country,'' Gonzales said.

The indictment seemed to signal a major shift in the United States' view of the guerrillas. While previous statements by U.S. officials linked specific FARC members to drug trafficking, the new charges implicate the entire FARC command structure in an organized cartel and is the first to mention Marulanda and his fellow top commanders as the masterminds.

In addition to the secretariat members, the indictment names 20 members of the FARC's military ''high command'' and numerous lower-ranking commanders. In all, 50 people were indicted, including Pedro Aldana, who is believed to have died some time back. Only three are already jailed in Colombia. Two other FARC members not mentioned in the indictment have already been extradited to face drug and other charges in Washington.

U.S. officials said they would offer up to $5 million for information leading to the capture of the higher ranking rebels and $2.5 million for 17 others.

Andrés Pastrana, former president of Colombia and now its ambassador in Washington, said his country would work with U.S. and other officials ``to bring justice to individuals and groups who are proven to be involved in drug trafficking.''

The State Department includes the FARC in its list of terrorist organizations because of some of its tactics, but Drug Enforcement Administration chief Karen Tandy said drug trafficking was its economic lifeline.

''Make no mistake; they're not just ordinary drug traffickers,'' Tandy said. ``To call them that would be something akin to calling Al Capone a tax cheat.''

The 42-page indictment includes a description of the FARC's makeup, command structure and a detailed history of its alleged involvement in the cocaine trade.

It states that FARC developed in the 1990s into a ''broker'' between coca farmers and cocaine distributors. Eventually, it declared itself the sole buyer of semi-processed coca paste and developed its own distribution network. Farmers and buyers who did not follow FARC orders were sometimes executed, including some who were ``dismembered alive.''

The sweeping allegations make no mention of the FARC's claims to be fighting to spread education, wealth and health to the one half of Colombia's 45 million people that lives below the poverty line, referring to it solely as a drug trafficking network.

But not all analysts agree with the U.S. assessment of its massive role in drug trafficking. While the FARC is undoubtedly heavily involved in drug trafficking, including distribution networks through countries like Venezuela and Mexico, criminal cartels still control the vast majority of drug routes leading into the United States and Europe, analysts said.

''This seems more like the work of Uribe lobbyists than that of an investigation,'' said Ricardo Vargas, head of the Colombian drug think-tank Andean Action and a longtime FARC-watcher.

Analysts also speculated that Washington and Bogotá may be trying to use the threat of extradition to coerce a peace settlement with the FARC, something they did successfully with right-wing paramilitary groups. Several paramilitary leaders indicted for drug trafficking in the United States face extradition if they do not comply with a peace accord now under negotiation with the Uribe government. But the powerful FARC, which has been fighting the government for the past 42 years, may not heel to such pressures.

''We should not be confused, that because [extradition] worked with the paramilitaries, it will work with the FARC,'' said Sergio Jaramillo, director of the think tank Ideas For Peace. ``It's a double-edged sword. If one is not careful, one may end up making a peace agreement in Colombia impossible.''