Pubdate: Sat, 08 Jul 2000
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2000 The New York Times Company
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Section: International
Author: Larry Rohter

EARMARKED FOR COLOMBIAN REBELS, A REGION ASKS TO BE LEFT ALONE

YONDO, Colombia -- For years, the people of this thriving little oil town 
on the bank of the Magdalena River complained that the authorities back in 
Bogota never paid them any attention. But now that they and their neighbors 
have suddenly become pivotal to a government plan to open peace talks with 
second-largest guerrilla group here, they want only to be left alone. When 
President Andres Pastrana announced the plan in April, it seemed a simple 
matter. To lure the Marxist rebels of the Army of National Liberation, or 
E.L.N., into negotiations, Yondo and two other municipalities north of here 
were to be turned into a "zone of encounter" under guerrilla control, with 
all army and police units withdrawn.

There has never been a shortage of armed groups roaming this area. So the 
government apparently thought that an end of hostilities would be welcome. 
Left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and the military have all 
sought to control this resource rich and strategic region, the Middle 
Magdalena. And all have left casualties in their wakes.

What the authorities in Bogota did not expect, though, was the popular 
resistance that has emerged. Soon after the announcement, thousands of 
protesters blocked the Pan American Highway, cutting off most commerce 
between central and northern Colombia.

"If they really want to talk peace, all they need to negotiate is a table 
and chairs," said Leonel Uribe Hernandez, a municipal official here and a 
leader of the protest. "They don't need all this territory. If the E.L.N. 
leaders are worried about their safety, let them talk overseas, in 
Venezuela or Spain or Germany. But we don't want to be a part of this."

After several weeks, Mr. Pastrana relented and agreed to a "dialogue" with 
residents. As part of a recent accord, the government has agreed to delay 
formally establishing the zone until undertaking "popular consultations," a 
phrase that the government seems to interpret as town meetings and 
workshops, but that residents take to mean a plebiscite.

"This is a democracy, so let the people vote on this and let their will be 
respected," Councilman Nixon Arrieta said. "If they say yes, then fine. But 
I don't think that is likely to happen, because we have nothing to gain 
from this and everything to lose."

The territory that the government has agreed to hand over is roughly the 
size of Delaware, or barely one-tenth the size of a separate demilitarized 
zone granted to the largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces 
of Colombia, or FARC. But the strategic importance of this area is much 
greater because it sits astride the country's main waterway and is within 
striking distance of a railway line and the Pan American Highway.

"I don't know what the president was thinking," a teacher here said. "The 
E.L.N. has a long history of blowing up oil pipelines, power stations and 
transmission lines. And he wants to put them right across the river from 
the biggest oil refinery in the country," which processes the bulk of 
Colombia's gasoline and is in Barrancabermeja.

Like the more sparsely populated FARC zone to the south, which is larger 
than Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island combined, this is cattle 
country and abounds in fertile pastures. But cows and water buffaloes have 
to graze alongside oil wells that produce millions of dollars a year in 
royalties.

Farther north, the mountains of the Serrania de San Lucas have large 
deposits of gold, emeralds, nickel and mercury. The gold mines have been 
shut for years because of the violence but could easily reopen after the 
fighting stops and soon thereafter begin filling the coffers of the E.L.N., 
which has met with military reverses in recent months.

The biggest and fastest-growing source of wealth in the area, however, is 
farming coca. The E.L.N. controlled drug trafficking here until 18 months 
ago, when it was violently supplanted by paramilitaries of the United 
Peasant Self-Defense force. And the E.L.N. would clearly like to regain the 
dominance and the revenues that it once enjoyed.

"This is anything but a fight over ideology," said Mayor Danuil Mecera of 
San Pablo, a town an hour's boat ride north of here that is in the E.L.N. 
zone. "This is a struggle for economic control and power, pure and simple, 
between two illegal armed groups that only want to strengthen their 
position at the expense of the other."

As government negotiations with protesters drag on, disgruntled E.L.N. 
forces are staying out of the towns and holing up in their mountain 
stronghold north of here. In a recent television interview, the senior 
commander, Nicolas Rodriguez Bautista, acknowledged that "there is much 
fear" of a peace zone but attributed that to "the pressure of paramilitary 
groups."

Residents and local officials say their real concern is that violence may 
increase after the zone has been set up, because the accord between the 
government and the rebels excludes paramilitary forces. With the army and 
the police withdrawn, the critics said, residents would be even more likely 
to be caught in cross-fire between the rebels and adamant paramilitary units.

"This territory is ours," said the local paramilitary leader, who is known 
as Comandante Julian. The fundamental problem, he added, is that "there are 
three states here, that of the guerrillas, the real one of the government 
and that of the self-defense forces."

Nevertheless, he added, "We will respect what the population decides, and 
if they accept a zone, we will withdraw our troops."

Hoping to win over the residents, the national government arranged for 
local officials to visit the FARC zone and talk with their counterparts and 
other residents there. But that effort backfired when the officials 
returned home with tales of extortion of businesses, summary executions, 
forced recruitment of teenagers and other guerrilla abuses.

"We can see for ourselves what happened down there, and we've been 
contacted by people down there who tell us that we should fight by all 
means to prevent what happened to them from happening to us," a pharmacist 
in San Pablo said. "The FARC zone has become an independent country, and we 
don't want that happening here."
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart