LAWLESSNESS GROWS PRIOR TO VOTE

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP)- When Maria Cristina Mejia voted in presidential
elections four years ago, she selected a candidate who pledged to negotiate
peace with a long-running leftist insurgency.

Now, with President Andres Pastrana's peace effort in tatters, the
53-year-old small-business owner plans to vote today for a candidate who
vows to get tough on the rebels and seek more U.S. military aid: Alvaro
Uribe. And so will millions of other Colombians.

"I'll vote for him so he takes care of this problem once and for all," said
Mejia, who runs a clothing-manufacturing business that is on the verge of
bankruptcy.

From gritty barrios to posh neighborhoods, Colombians are responding to
Uribe's call for a "firm hand," making the Harvard-educated former governor
the wide favorite in today's pivotal elections over his main challenger,
Horacio Serpa, who was interior minister for a former president linked to
drug traffickers.

For 38 years, Colombia's war has ground on, killing 3,500 people per year,
stifling economic growth and turning the lush, lawless landscape into the
world's No. 1 producer of cocaine and a breeding ground for kidnapping and
extortion. Now, even the cities are feeling the war which had previously
been largely fought in the countryside.

Battles were fought last week between government security forces and rebels
in the streets of Medellin, the country's second-largest city. In April,
rebels posing as government troops waltzed into the provincial parliament
in Cali, the third-largest city, and kidnapped a dozen legislators.

One presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt, is being held hostage by the
rebels after being kidnapped at a roadblock in February.

On Saturday, with the government deploying 212,000 troops and police to
protect today's voting, police said rebels blew up power lines, and a mayor
of a town in southern Caqueta State was found dead after gunmen kidnapped
him Friday.