By TIM JOHNSON
Herald Staff Writer

BOGOTA, Colombia -- After years of upsets at the hands of rebels, Colombia's
army on Sunday declared that it had inflicted a punishing and surprising
counter-blow, stopping a guerrilla offensive cold and killing as many as 202
insurgents.

An army statement said troops had halted ``the biggest and most demented
guerrilla offensive in the last 40 years'' by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC).

Military aircraft bombed 17 trucks carrying FARC guerrillas in five different regions
of eastern Colombia, the statement said.

Defense Minister Luis Fernando Ramirez confirmed that ``the number of guerrilla
casualties in the past two days is really very large. It probably is greater than
200.''

No independent confirmation could be made of the claims. Army reports of rebel
casualties have proven exaggerated in the past. But jubilant senior officers
organized a flight to take journalists today to the scene of what appeared to be
the bloodiest blow against the guerrillas. Three FARC squads appeared to be
trapped by the army near Puerto Lleras, 110 miles southeast of the capital.

The bloodshed comes on the eve of peace talks between the government of
President Andres Pastrana and FARC leaders. Both sides have jockeyed for the
upper hand going into the talks, set to begin July 20. No cease-fire has been set
in the 35-year-old war.

``The armed forces and the National Police have been able to frustrate 98 percent
of this demented terrorist action . . . causing [the guerrillas] their biggest reverse
in recent times,'' armed forces commander Gen. Fernando Tapias said.

Pastrana desperately needed a military victory against the insurgents to counter
growing public sentiment that he has been too willing to make concessions to the
FARC in a quest to end the war. Opinion polls show that many Colombians are
scared and fed up with inroads by the guerrillas.

The FARC offensive, the largest in perhaps half a year, began last Thursday with
a brutal attack by some 450 to 500 guerrillas on an army encampment of 70
soldiers near Gutierrez, a village 27 miles southeast of Bogota. Thirty-eight
soldiers were slain, 17 of them shot in the head, authorities said. At least one
soldier was castrated, village Mayor Leonel Augusto Garcia told The Herald.

Two dozen attacks

FARC rebels launched at least 24 separate armed attacks in nine of Colombia's
32 states over the next three days. Rebels halted traffic on a key highway and
fired on police or military posts, killing 18 police officers and four soldiers,
authorities said. On Saturday, Pastrana imposed a 6 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew in all or
part of 10 states, an area that did not include Bogota. The curfew lasts
indefinitely.

In one of the biggest failed FARC attacks, the rebels used armor-plated trucks to
carry up to 1,000 rebels into Puerto Lleras, a town on the eastern Ariari River, but
were confronted by several army battalions that trapped them along the Guayas
River, the army said.

``They have suffered close to 100 casualties and they are trying to flee with an
undetermined number of wounded,'' the statement said.

The key to the army's apparent success appeared to be shared intelligence with
the air force that permitted the bombing of convoys of trucks carrying guerrillas.
Helicopter gunships destroyed seven trucks carrying rebels near Hato Corozal in
oil-producing Casanare state, killing 38 guerrillas, the army statement said.

Trucks carrying guerrillas were also destroyed in Puerto Lleras and Puerto Rico in
Meta state, Puerto Rondon in Arauca state, and the towns of Doncello and
Valparaiso in Caqueta state, a region where much of Colombia's coca is grown,
the army said.

Good chemistry

Since Pastrana came to office nearly a year ago, he has struggled to bring about
formal talks with the FARC, a 35-year-old insurgency of some 15,000 to 17,000
well-armed combatants. Pastrana even met in the jungle twice with the
insurgency's legendary leader, Manuel ``Sure Shot'' Marulanda. The open-ended
talks that begin next week are partly the result of what aides say is good personal
chemistry between Pastrana and Marulanda.

But an increasingly poisoned atmosphere may hinder Pastrana's quest for peace,
analysts say. Increasingly, Colombians voice doubts about ceding too much for
peace with the FARC, an insurgency with far more military might than social
support.

A poll of 550 Colombians, published Sunday in the El Espectador newspaper,
showed that 70 percent of those surveyed view the FARC as a terrorist group, and
that 89 percent feel the insurgency is fighting for itself, but not Colombians at
large.

A parade of public figures -- ranging from Catholic prelates to union leaders -- is
protesting the way the peace talks are unfolding.

Ex-president's outburst

In a rare public outburst, former President Alfonso Lopez Michelsen captured a
sense of the public frustration in a forum in Medellin on Thursday.

``What we have here are terrorist bands without any organization, without their
own territory, that attack towns at night, shooting or murdering people, placing
`toe-popper' mines around the national territory, and kidnapping in the cities as a
means of financing themselves,'' Lopez Michelsen said.

``I ask you if what we are confronting is a civil war or bands of terrorists . . . that
have obtained recognition . . . without deserving it.''

Others lambasting the peace process include Luis Eduardo Garzon, respected
president of the Unified Workers' Central, a labor confederation, who said he feels
negotiators are not taking into account the opinions of the nation's 40 million
people.

President Alberto Fujimori of Peru, reiterating his concern about events in
Colombia, told Caracol Television on Sunday that if Colombia allows the FARC to
grow stronger, it will threaten stability in South America.

``If this process of advances in terrorism continues, it will constitute -- I don't have
the least doubt -- a threat to the continent,'' Fujimori said.

While many Colombians have grown inured to the brutality of the nation's war,
which takes between 3,000 and 4,000 lives a year, a growing number of citizens
appears revolted by the swaggering threats of FARC leaders. Last week, in a
boast that chilled many Colombians, FARC commander Raul Reyes said the
insurgency may simply commandeer the nation's maximum-security prisons to
free hundreds of jailed comrades.