Pubdate: Wed, 29 Aug 2001
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2001 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Jared Kotler, Associated Press Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/areas/colombia (Reports About Colombia)

COLOMBIAN SUPPORT FOR FORCE GROWS

BOGOTA, Colombia -- With peace talks fizzling and Colombia's armed forces 
showing sudden promise on the battlefield, support is growing here for 
using military force to bring leftist insurgents to their knees.

The shift could foreshadow an intensification of this Colombia's 37-year 
guerrilla war, and comes as the Bush administration debates how best to aid 
a troubled neighbor without getting sucked into the conflict.

A hardening of attitudes is apparent among many Colombians, including 
business leaders and top candidates in next year's presidential elections. 
They accuse the guerrillas of intransigence and question President Andres 
Pastrana's largesse in handing the nation's largest rebel group a huge 
chunk of territory as an incentive to negotiate.

A high-level U.S. delegation arriving Wednesday -- the first since 
President Bush took office -- will meet with Pastrana as part of a review 
of U.S. policy in Colombia.

U.S. aid is currently earmarked mostly for counternarcotics operations. The 
country's largest rebel group -- the 16,000-strong Revolutionary Armed 
Forces of Colombia, or FARC -- taxes and protects the cocaine trade to fund 
its insurgency, making the rebels a target for some of the U.S. military 
assistance.

The Bush administration has not indicated whether, or how, it might change 
Washington's role in Colombia. But it underscored that Colombia is high on 
its agenda by announcing that Secretary of State Colin Powell would be 
visiting here on Sept. 11-12.

Arriving Wednesday in Bogota are the Undersecretary of State for Political 
Affairs Marc Grossman; the National Security Council's Latin America 
adviser, John Maisto; and Gen. Peter Pace, the commander of U.S. military 
forces in Latin America.

Recent military successes following years of humiliation at the hands of 
the FARC are boosting the armed forces' morale, and the country appears to 
be preparing for things to get worse before there is peace.

Generals were triumphant during a large offensive last week in which the 
military claims it killed dozens of rebels while routing a column of more 
than 1,000 FARC fighters who left the safe haven to attack towns in the 
coca-growing south.

In an interview published Sunday, the commander of the army, Gen. Jorge 
Mora, predicted there would be intensified fighting over the next two to 
three years before the military gains the upper hand and forces the rebels 
to capitulate.

"Today's army is capable of winning the war," Mora told the newsmagazine 
Semana.

The Trade Group Council, an umbrella group of 15 Colombian private-sector 
associations, held dinners and other events to honor the armed forces in 
cities around the country Tuesday and said it would lobby for a larger 
defense budget.

A tougher military will strengthen the peace process, council president 
Sabas Pretelt was quoted as saying in Tuesday's El Tiempo newspaper.

Pastrana generated high hopes when he was elected three years ago on peace 
platform. But talks with the FARC have yielded almost no advances, while 
evidence mounts that the rebels have used their sanctuary for military 
preparations.

The captures here this month of three suspected Irish Republican Army 
members believed to have given explosives training to the FARC has raised 
fears of an urban guerrilla bombing campaign -- expanding what has been a 
largely rural war.

Pastrana says he remains committed to the peace process and hopes for a 
possible cease-fire before he leaves office next year. However, he recently 
signed legislation broadening the military's powers to carry out the war 
and has overseen a near-doubling in the number of professional soldiers.

Washington is providing helicopters and troop training under last year's 
$1.3 billion aid plan.

Daniel Garcia Pena, an anti-war activist and former government peace envoy 
called the growing warlike attitudes by both the military and the rebels 
"very worrisome."

"When one side looks to strengthen itself the other side does too, and all 
that happens is the war escalates," he said.
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