BOLIVAR, Colombia (AP) --When the sun rose over this Andean town after a
rebel attack, villagers emerged from the destruction to discover that five policemen
had been captured and were being taken away.

After a tense two-hour standoff punctuated by warning shots, the rebels let the
policemen go and marched out of town. It was an astounding chapter in Colombia's
37-year civil war, and made national headlines. Rarely has anyone, much less a
whole town, defied either the rebels or the right-wing paramilitary militias that fight
them.

But now the townspeople are beginning to consider the consequences of their
decision to face down the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia on Nov. 17.
They fear the rebels will return to exact their revenge.

After the attack, the National Police withdrew the police unit from Bolivar, as they
have done in 179 other towns that are considered too vulnerable to rebel attack. It's
not clear if the police will return to Bolivar.

Standing amid the wreckage of the house where he was raised, Francisco Ceron,
49, explained what pushed him to confront the rebels.

"It's an outrage, what they did here -- the damage to everything," he told a visitor
this week. "They have destroyed so much, people here are tired of it."

His mother, 70, cried nearby, occasionally exclaiming "what criminals!" as she
examined foot-thick walls that were damaged in the attack, her bed crushed by the
wreckage of the roof, her kitchen all but destroyed.

The rebels entered Bolivar about 3 p.m. on Nov. 16. People had heard they were
coming, and the town's 23 police officers spread out to try to defend the important
buildings. Police were unable to helicopter in reinforcements to the isolated town
because of heavy rains.

Hundreds of rebels attacked the town, blowing up the bank, part of the phone
company, city hall. The civic hall, where the police set up headquarters after a July
guerrilla attack destroyed their station, was also bombed and burned out.

"They had us surrounded, and I had three men injured. We were running out of
ammunition," recalled Sgt. Alonso Botias, the town police commander. "Finally,
there was nothing more we could do."

Speaking to a reporter this week in the provincial capital, Popayan, Botias estimated
that 300 guerrillas were involved in the attack. Others put the number at closer to
600.

Botias and the three injured officers with him were taken by the rebels around 6 a.m.
Another injured officer was captured in a different part of town. The 18 other
officers, also low on ammunition, escaped.

The guerrillas commandeered a bus and began heading out of town with the
captured policemen. That was when the villagers decided to take a stand.

"People were saying ... that after the police had fought defending us, we could not
just let them be taken," explained Elena Burbano, a restaurant owner. Captured
policemen are sometimes executed by the rebels. The rest spend years in rebel
prison camps.

Mayor Orlando Hoyos drove through Bolivar and, speaking over a megaphone, asked
residents to gather in the square, where the town priest awaited them. Other city
officials and schoolteachers went house to house, rounding people up.

Hundreds of residents, unarmed but angry faced the rebels' assault rifles, rockets
and grenades. The villagers demanded the police be freed. The guerrillas not only
refused, but threatened to execute the five captured officers if the town didn't force
the other 18 police to surrender.

"When they shot into the air over our heads, everyone fell on the ground, but that
made us even angrier," said Jose, a shopkeeper who wouldn't give his full name.

"That's when someone punctured the tires of the bus," he said.

Finally, the guerrillas walked out of town, leaving the police officers behind. A few
hours later, police helicopters evacuated all the officers.

Botias, a 15-year veteran, doesn't think Bolivar can be defended by a few officers,
but he wants to return, if only to thank the residents for confronting the rebels and
saving himself and his four fellow officers.

"I almost cried when I saw all the people," he said, trembling with emotion. "They
didn't want us to leave."

The residents, meanwhile, are afraid of what might happen next.

"We are worried, because (the rebels) could come back, and we don't know if the
police will come back or not." said Eminenciano Daza, the town priest.

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.