"Let's say, make war to win peace.  . . . We must squeeze the bucks from the enemies of the revolution."
-- JORGE BRICEÑO, head of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces

 BY JUAN O. TAMAYO

 BOGOTA, Colombia -- Even as Colombia's largest guerrilla force unveiled its new
 political wing Saturday, its military chief was quoted as ordering stepped-up
 attacks and kidnappings in preparation for a fall offensive.

 ``We can turn this country into s--t, Jorge Briceño, of the leftist Colombian
 Revolutionary Armed Forces, told his fighters in a radio broadcast recorded by
 Colombian security agencies and leaked to the news media.

 Briceño's words raised serious questions about the commitment of his group,
 known as the FARC, to ongoing negotiations with President Andres Pastrana to
 end Latin America's oldest and most violent insurgency.

 The war has expanded in recent years as leftist and rightist guerrillas filled their
 coffers with payoffs from traffickers who handle 80 percent of the cocaine and
 most of the heroin reaching U.S. markets.

 The FARC unveiled its political wing in a festive ceremony Saturday near San
 Vicente del Caguan, capital of a Switzerland-size chunk of southern Colombia
 cleared of government troops last year to launch the peace talks.

 FARC leaders said 30,000 area residents attended the unveiling of the Bolivarian
 Movement for a New Colombia as guerrillas roasted scores of cows to feed the
 crowd and released nearly 50,000 balloons into the air.

 About 4,000 rebels staged a parade through the area and handed out thousands
 of T-shirts bearing the movement's slogan, ``The people cannot continue
 disunited, Colombian television reports from the site showed.

 The movement, which has not been legally registered, will be headed by Alfonso
 Cano, No. 2 on the political side of the FARC's ruling echelon behind its longtime
 leader, 68-year-old Manuel ``Sure Shot Marulanda.

 Its manifesto describes it as an alternative to traditional political parties. But
 recent FARC actions have raised concern about its commitment to the peace
 talks being held in San Vicente.

 A clandestine gathering of the FARC's high command last month approved a ``law
 requiring all persons and firms worth more than one billion pesos -- about
 $540,000 -- to pay an unspecified tax to the rebels.

 Those who refuse ``will be detained, and their release will depend on payment, the
 FARC declared.

 ``This creates a parallel income tax authority, and in passing legalizes kidnapping
 and extortion, Juan Manuel Santos, a presidential hopeful in the 2002 election,
 wrote the newspaper El Tiempo on Friday.

 Colombians reacted even more angrily Saturday after El Tiempo published parts
 of Briceño's recent address to his fighters on the FARC's clandestine radio.
 Government security agencies often record such speeches.

 The country's rich, El Tiempo quoted him as saying, ``must make a donation for
 peace. That's for the development of the guerrilla war, but we say it is for peace.
 Let's say, make war to win peace. That's the theory.

 ``Fundamentally, we can say this: We must attack, capture and distill [rich from
 poor kidnap victims]. To put it another way, we must squeeze the bucks from the
 enemies of the revolution, Briceño reportedly said.

 The tax was designed to pressure Colombia's rich to push Pastrana to give way
 at the peace talks, Briceño was quoted as saying. ``But if the government breaks
 off, so be it. We don't have any problems with that.

 Bogota's RadioNet news chain also reported Saturday that security agencies
 captured a document in which Briceño orders stepped-up kidnappings and
 attacks on oil pipelines and electricity towers.

 The attacks will be in preparation for a rebel offensive before municipal elections in
 October, RadioNet reported, but also form part of a wider FARC plan to swiftly
 expand its strength from 16,000 fighters to 32,000.

 FARC leaders have attacked a U.S. plan to give Colombia $1.3 billion in additional
 counternarcotics assistance, calling an attempt to strengthen the Colombian
 military.

 Briceño has previously spoken publicly about the FARC plans, saying that the
 guerrillas want to have the strength necessary to force Pastrana to make peace if
 talks fail.