BY FRANCES ROBLES

  GIGANTE, Colombia - The message came to eight Gigante council members through an ominous cellphone call: Guerrilla commanders summon you to
  their mountaintop.

  Hours later, another group of the small town's council members, inspectors and mayor were beckoned too. Quit your jobs, they were told by leaders of
  the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Or die.

  'All they have to do is kill three or four mayors and everyone would say, `Oh! They were serious!' '' said Hernán Muñoz, the former clerk in Gigante, in
  Colombia's Huila state. ``I don't want to be that martyr. Let someone else be the martyr.''

  What began last month as a small-town strategy to derail city government in southern Colombia has swept the nation. By Tuesday, the FARC had
  menaced nearly 125 mayors from throughout Colombia. Threats have now hit the mayors of Bogotá, Cali and Medellín, the nation's largest cities. In
  Antioquia on Saturday, 23 mayors quit. In the state of Arauca, nearly 100 city officials stepped down, although many officials nationwide withdrew their
  resignations this week.

  U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson announced the American Embassy in Bogotá would include mayors and other city officials in its ongoing program that
  offers armored cars and other protection to activists, union leaders and other people in danger.

  In small towns across Colombia, city halls are padlocked. Paving projects have stopped. Garbage is piling up, medical centers are running out of supplies
  and courthouses have shut down. Many mayors are working from their state capitals or homes, refusing to sign contracts or do anything that resembles
  governing.

  NOT A CARD GAME

  A FARC strategy to destabilize Colombia's municipal government has the potential of bringing the nation to its knees just before a new president takes
  office, the mayors say. As Colombia's federal government grapples with its options -- more security, exile mayors -- it has refused to accept resignations.
  Democracy, federal officials say, isn't a card game: You can't just fold.

  ''Resigning does not solve the situation at all,'' said Nelson Rodolfo Amaya, interior vice minister. ``We need to sustain democracy. These people were
  not chosen, they were elected. We'll need exceptional measures. We'll do whatever it takes.''

  The municipal intimidation campaign highlights the daunting task that President-elect Alvaro Uribe faces as he prepares to take office Aug. 7. The former
  governor who was elected on the promise to crack down on rebels will step into the nation's highest office with the country's democracy compromised,
  many mayors in hiding, and -- some say -- rebels calling the shots in huge swaths of rural territory. A leftist insurgency now entering its 39th year has
  found yet another way to shake things up and illustrate its influence on a nation of 40 million people.

  Not surprisingly, Gigante's entire city council, mayor and police inspector quit en masse May 31. The next day, the mayors of Campoalegre and Rivera
  received similar phone calls from the FARC's Teofilio Forero front. They had 24 hours to resign or become ''military targets.'' They also obliged.

  ''It's not against us, it's against the institution. That's worse,'' said Juan Carlos Ortiz, who resigned June 4 as mayor of Rivera. ``This has been a very
  successful and very disconcerting FARC strategy.''

  After the May 31 threats in Gigante, City Hall remained closed for two full weeks. By the time it reopened, mayors across the nation had gotten similar
  threats. Now Gigante's city workers show up for work, but simply because they fear losing pensions. Their bosses are at home, and the public is not
  being attended.

  ''Street-paving: stopped. The distribution of subsidized housing: stopped. State health services: suspended. City sports leagues -- stopped,'' said
  Gigante ice cream vendor César Silva. ``We got to the point where we were up to our necks in garbage.''

  In nearby Hobo, a town of 9,000 also in Huila, people started their own garbage collection service, charging each household 15 cents.

  ''Anyone who gets sick,'' former city clerk Celiano Vega said, ``better have a car.''

  Mayors feel Andrés Pastrana's administration has failed to address the crisis. Short of offering more body guards and cellphones, the government has
  provided few answers, they say. Pastrana has been portrayed here as a lame-duck president coasting his way until his successor takes his place.

  Vice President Gustavo Bell held a press conference over the weekend, where he announced he would leave it up to the governors to decide whether to
  accept city officials' resignations. Pastrana urged them not to quit.

  ''The first one threatened here is me and my wife,'' Pastrana said.

  Tona Mayor Máximo Luna said the lack of a clear federal strategy has pushed some mayors into joining the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, an
  illegal right-wing paramilitary force that fights rebels.

  'They're giving us answers like, `you had two guards, here's eight,' '' Ortiz said. ``That's not the answer. We need a political answer.''

  Many city officials interviewed agreed that the FARC is trying to force the Colombian government back to the bargaining table. The rebels had negotiated
  with Pastrana for three years in the comfort of a 16,000-square-mile ''clearing zone,'' where the FARC was granted full autonomy. But Pastrana yanked
  the demilitarized zone Feb. 20, after rebels hijacked a domestic airliner and kidnapped a prominent senator aboard it.

  BATTERED NATION

  Since the peace process broke off, the FARC has battered the nation with deadly explosions aimed at bridges, electrical and telecommunication towers. In
  the past weeks, the bombings have subsided.

  ''They realize the real way to knock a tower down is at its base,'' Huila Secretary of State Tatiana Serrato said. ``And the base is the mayors.''

  The mayors have urged the federal government to negotiate a solution.

  Uribe has suggested he's open to dialogue, but only if the 38-year-old insurgency agrees to a cease-fire.

  In the meantime, the federal government is allowing mayors to work from their state capitals, but little has been done for the hundreds of other city
  officials who have also been threatened.

  ''The government is ready to collaborate,'' Amaya, the interior vice minister, insisted.

  Gilberto Toro, director of the Colombian Municipal Federation, said the threats must be taken seriously. The FARC killed eight mayors this year, including
  one who ignored the resignation deadline.

  ''They're trying to show the new government how strong they are,'' Toro said.

  ``They're trying to finish off with democracy.''