Colombia flexes muscle against FARC
Andrew Selsky
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN VICENTE DEL CAGUAN, Colombia — President
Andres Pastrana returned yesterday to the very spot in former rebel territory
where he began a
tortuous peace process three years ago and blamed the guerrillas for
sabotaging the talks to end Colombia's 38-year war.
Mr. Pastrana touched down by helicopter on
a soccer field in the southern cattle-ranching town of San Vicente del
Caguan, just hours after army troops stealthily
occupied it, yanked down a rebel flag and tossed the flag into the
trash.
Mr. Pastrana is trying to reassert government
authority over cattle country and tropical jungle in southern Colombia
that he ceded to the leftist Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in 1998 as an incentive to end the
war. The region is twice the size of New Jersey with about 100,000 residents.
He angrily revoked the zone when rebels hijacked
an airliner and kidnapped a Colombian senator Wednesday, ordering hundreds
of air strikes on rebel targets
and mobilizing 13,000 troops to retake the zone.
Two U.S. soldiers, including the head of the
250-member U.S. military adviser contingent in Colombia, accompanied Mr.
Pastrana's entourage and said they
were going to monitor the military situation. Washington has been equipping
and training Colombia's anti-narcotics forces and has been asked by Mr.
Pastrana to
provide direct military aid to use against the rebels.
Army chief Gen. Jorge Mora said the
offensive was progressing as planned. Another Colombian officer, speaking
on the condition he not be identified, said
government attacks on roads and airstrips would continue.
Addressing 3,000 residents packed into a shabby
town plaza under a sweltering sun, Mr. Pastrana accused the FARC of staging
117 attacks in recent weeks,
ruining a peace process that had been the cornerstone of his administration.
"They were the ones who made the decision
to break away from the negotiating table," the president declared. "The
Colombian president never abandoned his
seat at the peace table."
Mr. Pastrana recalled that rebel leader Manuel
Marulanda failed to show up for the first peace talks at the same town
square in January 1999. It was a huge
embarrassment for Mr. Pastrana and confirmed many Colombians' belief
that the FARC was not serious about talks.
As the president spoke yesterday, two army
sharpshooters in a church belltower scanned the crowd through the scopes
of their sniper rifles, and U.S.-made
Black Hawk helicopters thundered overhead.
San Vicente was the first rebel town to fall
to the army, which had seized a nearby army base Friday. A patrol squad
snaked into San Vicente's streets at dawn
yesterday.
In less than three days, this town traded
one armed group for another, both blood enemies. But many residents took
the change with aplomb.
"You have to get used to changes in life,"
said Claudia Patricia Castaneda, a waitress at a soda shop who was serving
ice cream and soft drinks to soldiers with
weapons slung over their shoulders.
Soldiers tore down a sign in front of a FARC
press office. Others patrolled streets with bomb-sniffing dogs, seeking
out land mines and booby traps.
Troops cautiously advanced on four other towns
inside the former demilitarized zone. National Police Gen. Tobias Duran
said the soldiers and police behind them
were likely to find innumerable rebel bombs. Deeper inside the zone,
troops deactivated explosives packed by the rebels into a bus that was
blocking a key
roadway, officials said.
Under intense international pressure, the
FARC had agreed in January to begin cease-fire talks in April. Then it
escalated its attacks, angering a nation already
disillusioned with Mr. Pastrana's seeming permissiveness toward the
rebels.
The FARC said Friday it isn't interested in
new peace talks with Mr. Pastrana, whose term in office ends in August.
Colombia's largest guerrilla army apparently
vanished into the tropical jungles of its former sanctuary ahead of the
military offensive.
Just outside the eastern border of the zone,
about 200 people waved white flags and chanted peace slogans as they walked
from the city of Granada to a bridge
destroyed by the rebels. They wanted to show their solidarity with
civilians deep inside.
"We've had enough of war," said Jorge Criales,
86. "We need peace here."
Elsewhere, officials reported that rebels
destroyed a bridge near Florencia, downed two electrical transmission towers
in Cauca state and rigged two cars with
explosives on a highway near the zone.
At least 10 right-wing paramilitary fighters
were killed late Friday in combat with the FARC in western Colombia, said
army Col. Edgar Cifuentes.
Many predicted that the FARC was saving its
heaviest retaliation. "There will probably be an economic war, an urban
war, a war against the oligarchy in the cities
like we've never seen before," said Carlos Franco, a political analyst
and former guerrilla.
The FARC says it fights in the name of Colombia's
poor. A majority of Colombians believe the rebels are little more than
terrorists, kidnappers and drug
traffickers.
The U.S. State Department said Friday that
Washington would increase intelligence sharing with Colombia's military
and accelerate deliveries of spare parts for
military equipment. Colombian Ambassador Luis Moreno welcomed the announcement
but said his government wants permission to use the U.S. equipment already
provided for the drug war "to prevent acts of terrorism."
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