Pubdate: Sat, 02 Mar 2002
Source: Orange County Register (CA)
Copyright: 2002 The Orange County Register
Contact:  http://www.ocregister.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/321
Author: Andrew Selsky, The Associated Press

COLOMBIAN GUERRILLAS PROTEST U.S. PRESENCE

Rebels Accuse President of Causing Peace Talks' Collapse, Bowing to U.S. Aims

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Rebels blamed President Andres Pastrana on Friday for 
the collapse of peace talks and said the presence of U.S. troops during the 
president's visit to their former sanctuary showed he took orders from 
Washington.

In a 10-point communique, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia 
refused responsibility for the failure of the country's 3-year-old peace 
process. The document did not explain why rebels hijacked an airliner and 
kidnapped a senator - acts which led Pastrana to end the talks on Feb. 20.

The communique - signed by commanders Raul Reyes, Joaquin Gomez, Carlos 
Antonio Lozada, Simon Trinidad and Andres Paris - was the first official 
word from the rebel group since the peace process ended.

The guerrilla leadership has been inaccessible to journalists since it 
abandoned towns and the negotiating site in its safe haven, which Pastrana 
ceded to the rebels three years ago but revoked when talks collapsed. 
Colombian warplanes have been bombing the zone, and ground forces have 
moved into the zone's main towns.

On Feb. 23, two U.S. Army soldiers accompanied Pastrana to the zone's main 
town, San Vicente del Caguan, where the president assured townspeople the 
government would help them.

"The presence of the North American soldiers leaves no doubt as to who 
delivers the orders, which Pastrana submissively obeys," the rebels asserted.

The two soldiers, who are attached to the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, had said 
they were accompanying Pastrana to observe events.

The United States currently provides training and helicopters to Colombian 
counternarcotics troops and is considering Colombian government requests 
for wider aid.

In related developments, the State Department reported that U.S.- backed 
Colombian police sprayed nearly twice as many acres of coca in Colombia 
last year as they did in 2000 in the fight against cocaine, but the impact 
on overall production is still unclear.

A CIA report on Colombian production figures, expected to be made public by 
the White House next week, should help evaluate the success of the 
stepped-up U.S.-Colombian effort to combat rampant coca production in Colombia.
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