By Andrew Selsky
Associated Press
FLORENCIA, Colombia – Colombian warplanes began bombing a vast rebel territory today and amassing 13,000 troops nearby, after the president canceled peace talks and decided to retake the region from leftist guerrillas, the military reported.
President Andres Pastrana formally ended Colombia’s three-year peace process Wednesday night, just hours after guerrillas hijacked a domestic airliner and kidnapped a senator onboard. Pastrana set a midnight deadline for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to abandon the zone in southern Colombia that he gave to the rebel group in 1998.
The military said it was mobilizing more than 13,000 soldiers from bases located on three sides of the guerrilla safe haven, a region twice the size of New Jersey.
Troops in camouflage uniforms guarded a highway this morning leading from the southern city of Florencia to the rebel zone, about a three-hour drive to the west. They said they were awaiting possible orders to move into the zone.
Corp. Carlos Vanegas, carrying an assault rifle, said he was feeling “very good” about the decision to retake the zone from the FARC. “We should have done this a long time ago. All they were doing is getter stronger inside their safe haven,” he added.
The army’s second-in-command, Gen. Euclides Sanchez, said a “large-scale” and potentially bloody operation was under way to recapture the zone, involving the army, air force and marines.
“It’s dicey, and we will surely suffer casualties, but we have a moral obligation to win this war,” he told local Caracol Radio.
The United States has been providing training, equipment and intelligence support to special Colombian army counternarcotics units. But Sanchez said there was no U.S. role whatsoever in today’s offensive against the FARC.
Military warplanes and helicopters bombed “85 strategic points within the zone” overnight and the operation was continuing, armed forces spokeswoman Consuelo Garcia told The Associated Press. More than 200 air attack missions have been flown, the military said.
The military was reportedly bombing rebel installations, including camps, warehouses and airstrips.
The rebel haven is sparsely populated, with about 100,000 residents spread out over five counties, a 16,200 square-mile area.
Television reporters inside the guerrilla territory said the rebels had largely disappeared from view. Broadcast footage showed many residents leaving the area.
There were no official reports yet of ground clashes or troops entering the rebel area.
However, there were clear signs of a troop buildup. Three planeloads of counterinsurgency troops were seen setting down this morning at Florencia’s airport.
Col. Nelson Rocha, the head of an army engineer’s battalion based on the road to the safe haven, said he was preparing to move heavy equipment into the area to destroy guerrilla airstrips.
Nestor Ramirez, the mayor of the largest town inside the safe haven, San Vicente del Caguan, said residents there are afraid of becoming trapped in fighting.
“Naturally there is fear because the news caught everyone by surprise,” the mayor said. “The people have been nervous for some time about the future of the peace process.”
Colombia’s civil war pits the FARC and a smaller rebel group against government troops and an outlawed paramilitary militia. Roughly 3,500 people, most of them civilians, die every year in the fighting.
The U.S. government has labeled the FARC a terrorist organization, leaving open the possibility it may later provide direct counterinsurgency aid. The Bush administration has asked Congress to authorize $98 million to train and arm a Colombian army brigade to protect a vital oil pipeline from rebel attacks.
In Washington, a senior U.S. official said the Bush administration can understand Pastrana’s frustration with the FARC. “We supported President Pastrana all along. We said this was his decision,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Pastrana’s announcement was greeted enthusiastically in Bogota, where drivers honked their horns to show their approval.
“This peace process didn’t make sense because of the actions of the guerrillas,” said Jaime Tapia, a shopkeeper. “It doesn’t matter if there is a war. We are already at war.”
The president’s decision came shortly after four rebels dressed in civilian clothes and armed with handguns forced an Aires airlines flight to land in southern Colombia.
Camouflage-clad rebels met the plane on a two-lane highway near the town of Hobo and whisked away the hijackers and Sen. Jorge Gechen Turbay, 50, president of the Colombian Senate’s peace commission. The remaining 29 passengers and crew were freed unharmed.
The highly organized hijacking infuriated a nation already fed up with peace talks that have done little to bring an end to Colombia’s 38-year-old civil war. It also appeared to be the last straw for Pastrana.
“It’s not possible to sign agreements on one side while putting guns to the heads of innocent people on the other,” Pastrana said.
Pastrana, who had staked his presidency on bringing an end to Colombia’s war, insisted that the three-year effort toward making peace with the FARC had not been wasted. He said the military was stronger than it had ever been. And he said the process was proof that the FARC could not negotiate in good faith.
“Today, the guerrillas have been unmasked and have shown their true face, the face of senseless violence,” he said. Besides Gechen Turbay, four other members of Congress are also being held by the rebels.
Pastrana showed video clips of destruction attributed to the rebels: bridges that had been blown up, a homemade bomb in a church, buildings destroyed by explosions, a child’s body lying under a sheet. Then he showed aerial photographs of airstrips and highways, which he said the FARC had built inside the government-granted territory to further their drug trafficking activities.
Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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