Pubdate: Tue, 05 Dec 2000
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 2000 News World Communications, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.washtimes.com/
Author: Michael Easterbrook, Associated Press

PASTRANA FACES DECISION ON HELPING LEFTIST REBELS

BOGOTA, Colombia - With a deadline looming on whether to continue peace 
talks with leftist rebels, President Andres Pastrana faces a skeptical 
public and U.S. accusations of deepening guerrilla involvement in the drug 
trade.

Mr. Pastrana must decide by Thursday whether to authorize continued rebel 
rule over a vast southern region the government ceded two years ago to spur 
negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or (FARC).

Taking back the demilitarized zone from the FARC could require heavy 
fighting and would probably be the death knell for negotiations begun in 
January 1999 to end this country's 36-year-war.

Mr. Pastrana has made peace his government's top priority, and has already 
extended the DMZ several times since pulling some 2,500 troops from the 
region in November 1998, just prior to the beginning of the talks.

Most observers expect him to do so again - even though the FARC recently 
declared a "freeze" on negotiations. Lengthy meetings took place Friday 
between a presidential peace envoy and top FARC commander Manuel Marulanda 
to seek a solution to the impasse.

With negotiations yielding few results to date - and accusations mounting 
that the FARC has used its safe haven to harbor kidnap victims, launch 
attacks, and smuggle cocaine - public sentiment is against further 
government generosity.

Seventy-six percent of Colombians believe Mr. Pastrana should take back the 
DMZ unless the talks get back on track, according to a poll published 
Sunday in the country's leading newspaper, El Tiempo.

Eighty-three percent of Colombians do not believe the FARC sincerely wants 
peace, according to the opinion survey carried out in major cities, which 
had a 3.7 percent error margin.

While refusing to question Mr. Pastrana's peace strategy, U.S. officials 
launched a barrage of accusations last week of FARC involvement in cocaine 
trafficking.

A State Department spokesman on Wednesday backed recent allegations by 
Mexico's attorney general that the FARC has supplied cocaine to a major 
Mexican cartel in return for cash and possibly weapons. The spokesman urged 
the FARC to sever its ties to the drug trade.

The rebels admit they finance their operations in part through a "tax" on 
peasant farmers who grow drug crops. But the FARC denies any involvement 
further up the international drug trafficking chain of operations.

Growing rebel and paramilitary involvement in the drug trade is one of the 
main justifications behind a $1.3 billion U.S. anti-drug aid package for 
Colombia.
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