ANDREW SELSKY
  Associated Press

  LA MANOSA, Colombia - The road from Colombia's capital to its second largest city drops steeply from the heights of a mountain range, crosses the nation's biggest river on an iron bridge, then snakes back up into the Andes.

  The Medellin-Bogota Highway is one of the most scenic drives in the Americas. Until recently, Colombia's war also made it one of the deadliest.

  During the seven-hour journey between Bogota and Medellin, drivers often braved a gauntlet of roadblocks, where they risked being kidnapped or killed or having their
  vehicles torched by masked rebels.

  But now, the government has taken firm control of the road, deploying troops to prevent the guerrillas from slipping down the surrounding forested mountainsides to stop traffic at gunpoint and wreak havoc.

  The highway, one of the country's most important, has seen only a single attack in more than a year. Cargo trucks rumble past in a steady flow, people who had fled in fear are returning to their homes and reopening businesses along the road, and tourists now feel safe enough to make the drive.

  The renaissance of this 250-mile highway comes as government troops, many of them trained by U.S. Special Operations forces and using U.S.-donated combat helicopters, are pushing Colombia's two rebel armies deeper into the jungles of this country, which is bigger than Texas plus California.

  But while those operations are playing out in remote areas far from the eyes of most Colombians, the retaking of the highway is the most visible triumph in President Alvaro Uribe's campaign to crack down on the 40-year-old rebel insurgency and restore the rule of law to Colombia.

  "We are protecting 7 billion pesos ($2.5 million) worth of cargo carried by trucks along this highway every day," army Lt. Alberto Riveros proudly told a reporter recently as he and a dozen other soldiers guarded a bridge over the roiling Samana River.

  A few miles farther along the two-lane highway, workers were rebuilding a bridge over a chasm as trucks and cars waited their turn to cross a temporary one-lane span. The bridge was blown up about two years ago.

  A young soldier gave a thumbs-up and exchanged broad smiles with a passing motorist.

  "This is great, because now we can live and work here again," exulted Daniel Burgos, who runs a juice stand a short distance beyond the chasm. Burgos' family had abandoned the business for more than two years because the area was too dangerous.

  "Things are getting better, and that's a novelty in this country," Burgos said as customers sat on a bench below overhanging clusters of oranges and bananas, drinking juice fresh from the blender.

  Colombia's two rebel armies were originally inspired by Marxism and the Cuban revolution but now resemble large criminal gangs, specializing in drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion.

  "This area used to be under the total dominion of the guerrillas," the army's Riveros said. "There are still some out there, but we're managing to clear them out."

  However, authorities still close a 65-mile stretch of highway at night in case of an attack. On Feb. 17, in the first attack along the highway in 397 days, rebels set up a
  roadblock along that stretch near the town of Corcona, fatally shooting two truck drivers who tried to drive past and wounding five other civilians, police said.

  The rebels used to regularly mount brazen assaults. In 2000, they blockaded the road for four days, shooting out the tires of dozens of vehicles and holding 1,000 travelers hostage until government forces finally ran them off.

  "I've seen the rebels burn trucks and buses and all sorts of vehicles at roadblocks, but since Uribe came to office I've seen better security in all the country," said Roberto Henao, a trucker carrying a load of Samsung appliances to Bogota.

  He was eating lunch at the Parador Los Aragones restaurant, reopened in 2003 after being closed for three years because of the violence.

  In the past year, troops backed by helicopters and warplanes have killed 215 rebels, captured 85 and destroyed 92 rebel camps in the mountains near the highway, according to published reports.

  Last year, motorists tended to venture onto the highway only in convoys escorted by troops. But now that 2,500 soldiers have been deployed to protect the road, the convoys are no longer needed.

  Highway Patrol Officer Jose Villa, sitting in a police pickup truck next to the Campo Verde motel, which opened last year, said the rebels are no longer a threat here, even if they still operate elsewhere in Colombia.

  "Before, it was difficult to travel on this highway," Villa said. "Now the guerrillas are afraid to do anything, and the truckers and tourists can travel freely. That's important for the economy of this country."