The Washington Post
BALSILLAS, Colombia — The Colombian military launched its campaign to retake control of a vast guerrilla stronghold Thursday, dispatching warplanes and helicopters to attack a wide range of rebel targets only hours after President Andres Pastrana called an end to peace talks.
Military officials said the airstrikes — about 200 sorties by A37 jet fighters, AC47 gunships and armed helicopters — hit more than 80 guerrilla installations, including landing strips, drug laboratories and training camps. They marked the first step in what could be a prolonged drive to take back a 16,000-square-mile swath of southern Colombian jungle and pastureland that Pastrana ceded to the guerrillas three years ago to foster peace talks and help bring an end to the war that has bloodied this country for nearly 40 years.
Pastrana said Thursday that he made his decision to end his talks with the guerrillas and reassert army control over the zone after receiving clear proof that the main guerrilla movement, the Marxist-oriented Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, had carried out the hijacking of a commercial airline flight to Bogota Wednesday morning and kidnapped a prominent senator.
Appearing confident and even joking at times in an interview with foreign reporters, Pastrana said that in light of his decision to end talks with the 18,000-strong FARC, he hoped the United States would loosen restrictions on the way Colombia can use the military component of a $1.3 billion U.S. anti-drug package. The roughly 50 helicopters and extensive military training that the United States provides Colombia have been restricted to use in anti-drug operations, ruling them out for offensive actions against the guerrillas.
In what seemed to be an attempt to enlist more U.S. help, he pointedly qualified FARC as a terrorist organization and sought to place the Colombian military’s campaign against the rebels into the context of the Bush administration’s war on terrorism. In its most recent listing, the U.S. administration included FARC among the groups classified as terrorist.
"As long as the FARC has defined itself as a terrorist group, and in the context of the world fight against terrorism, we hope we could count on that (change) soon," the president said. "Not only for use in the (guerrilla haven). But in the whole country."
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