SAN VICENTE DEL CAGUAN, Colombia (Reuters) -- The United
States maintains a larger military presence in Colombia than it publicly
acknowledges and could find itself drawn into a conflict with Marxist rebels
similar to the Vietnam War, a senior guerrilla leader says.
"The spiral of intervention that the North Americans have unleashed is
very
dangerous," Ivan Rios, a commander of the Marxist Revolutionary Armed
Forces (FARC), told Reuters in a weekend interview, referring to the
Americans.
"It's possible that this isn't going to be like some little Vietnam but
that it will
turn out to be a big Vietnam," said Rios, a member of the FARC's
policy-making joint chiefs of staff.
Rios, 37, spoke in his headquarters overlooking the main square of this
muddy cattle town in the center of a Switzerland-sized area of savanna
and
jungle that the government ceded to rebel control in November as an
inducement to enter into talks to end Colombia's 35-year-old conflict.
American officials estimate that on average no more than 150 to 250 U.S.
military personnel are in Colombia, the third-largest recipient of U.S.
security
assistance this year.
But Rios said the American presence was much larger, claiming the United
States was deeply involved in efforts to bolster the poorly trained and
poorly
equipped Colombian army and police to put them on a more equal footing
with the 17,000-strong FARC.
"In Colombia we calculate that there are approximately 2,000 North
American military personnel," said Rios, tilting back the brim of his
olive-drab military cap, which is adorned with a red-and-black pin showing
the image of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Argentine-born Cuban
revolutionary figure.
"Some of them are involved in espionage, others serve as delegates to the
various security forces, such as the DAS (state security police) or the
police.
Still others are out there training battalions or piloting military spy
planes like
the one that crashed (in July)," he said.
The U.S. Embassy declined to comment on Rios' remarks. The United
States has maintained that its military aid to Colombia is earmarked
exclusively for counternarcotics efforts, not for fighting the FARC or
the
smaller National Liberation Army.
But Rios said the five American soldiers killed in the crash of the U.S.
spy
plane in July were on an espionage mission that had nothing to do with
counternarcotics efforts.
The guerrilla leader also said the FARC was ready to face an invasion force,
and a U.S. bombing campaign if necessary, to achieve its goals, including
the
building of a Socialist state.
Rios said President Andres Pastrana and hardliners in Washington have
been gearing up for all-out war in Colombia and prying open the door to
the
same sort of direct U.S. involvement that occurred in the conflicts of
Central
America in the 1980s and Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s.
The peace talks are due to resume soon after a three-month paralysis partly
blamed on rebel rejection of an international verification commission in
the
area they control.
But Rios, a fierce critic of growing U.S. aid for Colombia's military and
anti-drug operations, said he sees the peace process as leading nowhere
because it has little apparent backing in Washington or among Colombia's
wealthy elite.
And he said the negotiating process itself was something that has been
manipulated by Pastrana to protect powerful economic interests that are
among the root causes of violence in Colombia.
"The government's will to make peace is losing credibility," he said.
"The government's message, alongside the North Americans, is that we
should sit down (at the negotiating table) and behave ourselves. 'Either
you
talk, and allow certain conditions to be imposed upon you, or there's going
to be an invasion.' That's the message they've been putting out bit by
bit,"
said Rios.
Copyright 1999 Reuters.