Pubdate: Sat, 06 Aug 2005
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2005 The Miami Herald
Contact:  http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262
Author: Steven Dudley
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/areas/colombia

TROOPS FAILING TO REIN IN FARC

Despite Sending Army Reinforcements To A Southern Province Where Farc 
Guerrillas Have Declared An 'Armed Strike,' Colombia's Government Is 
Having Trouble Regaining Control

ORITO, Colombia -- Red and orange flames engulfed the 80-foot trees 
and rolled down a hill toward the small stream that passed through a 
hamlet. A plume of black smoke snaked toward the sky.

Celimo Solano said he ran from the nearby farm where he was working 
to see if his house had been caught up in the oil fire after leftist 
guerrillas blew up a 12-inch pipeline. It had not, but the rebels 
urged the 61-year old Solano and his wife to move away for their own safety.

The blast just one mile from an army base here underlined the 
difficult task the government is facing these days controlling the 
southern province of Putumayo -- a vast jungle region along the 
Ecuadorean border and long a bastion of FARC guerrillas.

Twelve days ago, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia units in 
the region declared an "armed strike" -- all commercial transport 
must stop, on threat of torchings -- in what appeared to be an 
attempt to lure more troops here and ease army pressures on the FARC 
in other parts of the nation. A half-dozen vehicles have been burned already.

Deployments

The army has sent in more than 1,000 troop reinforcements and several 
armored personnel carriers to help protect food convoys, but the 
massive deployments seem to have had little impact on the more mobile 
guerrillas.

Tomatoes and rice still line the store shelves, and the military flew 
in one planeload of supplies for civilians. But residents fear that 
this is only the beginning.

"If this goes another week we'll finish off everything," said Nidia 
Rosel, the 46-year-old manager of Supermercado Subasta in the oil 
industry town of Orito.

Rosel said she has already rationed sugar, and paid higher prices and 
risked losing merchandise to bring in other staples like potatoes. 
But she worries that the guerrillas may tighten the noose.

"Some people are moving around, but with caution," she said of the 
drivers of trucks, buses, and taxis not obeying the FARC's strike 
orders. "[But] it's easier to find cowardice than bravery."

Since the guerrillas declared the "armed strike," they have also 
destroyed some of the region's oil pipelines and an oil well, and 
knocked out electricity -- forcing residents to live by candlelight 
after darkness falls. They also blew up an important bridge, forcing 
travelers to use a makeshift ferry.

Still not clear is why the FARC launched the attacks, with some rebel 
fighters saying only that the strike is designed to "divert" military 
pressures elsewhere.

Some speculate that the rebels are trying to relieve the pressure on 
a rumored army encirclement of a member of the FARC's high command, 
Raul Reyes. Neither the military nor the guerrillas would confirm the accounts.

Army Offensive

Others believe it may be part of an effort to disrupt a two-year-old 
army campaign in southeastern Colombia, the center of FARC's 
activities for years. Known as Plan Patriot, the campaign by 17,000 
troops has pushed the rebels deeper into the jungle outposts and 
greatly reduced their attacks on military bases and towns.

Government troops and police also have targeted Putumayo as part of a 
strong campaign to rid the province of its coca farms -- which in 
2001 accounted for half of Colombia's production of the raw material 
for cocaine -- as well as the FARC.

A U.S.-financed herbicide spraying campaign has wiped out most of the 
coca farms. But just last month, fighters from the FARC's 48th Front 
attacked an army base in the Putumayo town of Teteye, killing 22 
soldiers. "The guerrilla war is very difficult to decipher," said Lt. 
Col. Francisco Javier Cruz, commander of the army battalion based in 
Orito. "But the situation is under control, because we've been more 
on the offensive."

This week, Cruz mobilized hundreds of troops toward guerrilla 
strongholds along the Ecuadorean border, where the army and the FARC 
have squared off along the Rumiyaco river.

Despite the heavy troop presence in their area, a unit of FARC 
fighters seemed largely unconcerned when journalists encountered them 
Wednesday near the river. They moved swiftly from hilltop to hilltop 
along jungle paths they could find even in the dead of night. When 
the army soldiers approached, they scampered off in small groups. 
Fighting soon ensued, and lasted through the next day.
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