COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT ORDERS PROBE OF PURPORTED MILITARY PLAN TO FORM GOVERNMENT

BOGOTA -- Colombia's President Andres Pastrana has ordered an investigation
into a report that former military leaders and right-wing politicians have
proposed forming a mixed civilian and military government that would
consider shutting down Congress.

"Colombia's democracy is at stake," said Pastrana, the South American
nation's elected leader, as he ordered the office of the Attorney General
to conduct a probe.

The move followed a report from Senator Luis Velez of the opposition
Liberal party, who said that that several former military leaders and
conservative politicians had approached him suggesting the formation of a
military-civilian government comprising the three candidates who fare best
in May's presidential election, plus two military leaders.

Velez provided local media with printed copies of the plan, dated May 2,
and signed by retired general Jose Joaquin Matallana, who was secretary to
retired general Rafael Navas, one of the five members of the military junta
that ruled Colombia in 1957 after the 1953-1957 dictatorship of General
Gustavo Rojas Pinilla.

Matallana has told reporters he suggested joining a military-civilian
government "only by democratic means," but that he later dropped the
initiative because "the conditions are not right to propose it to the
public, and the country, which has a civilian-rule tradition and would not
look favorably on such a course of action."

"In any event, my proposal was not a conspiracy because the idea was to
consult the people directly" on it, Matallana argued.

He said some former military leaders and others had been meeting for two
years to discuss the situation Colombia is in after decades of civil strife
among leftist rebels, government troops and right-wing paramilitaries. He
said they would continue to look for "solutions that don't run up against
as much opposition as the proposal" to form a civilian-military government.

"In those meetings, all sorts of proposals come up, some quite bold and
others which have to be rejected immediately; but the country needs
far-reaching reforms that would have to have the support" of the military
and police, Matallana said.

Matallana further stressed that his group did not plan to endorse any
candidate in the presidential race next May.

But the members of the group "do hope that any person or group which
assumes the presidency of the republic will have enough popular support to
make the changes that the country needs," even if that means shutting down
Congress, Matallana said.

Asked about the peace process with Marxist rebels, Matallana argued that
"if a government were formed in a plural fashion, in which three or more
political forces were represented, there would be a very favorable base
from which to push forward the peace process."

"We are convinced," he said, "that the solution to the armed conflict must
be a negotiated one, and that no side is going to impose itself by force."

Since January 1999, Pastrana's government has led an on-again-off-again
peace process with Colombia's largest rebel group, the 16,500-strong
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and has attempted to coax
the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN) to the negotiating table.

The peace process has yet to produce a ceasefire, but FARC and the
government did sign a humanitarian accord for an exchange of ill prisoners,
which was seen here as an important milestone. The terms of the accord have
been honored thus far, with the release thus far of 55 soldiers or police
and 14 rebels.

The FARC has said it will 250 to 300 more prisoners next Thursday as a
"peacemaking gesture" -- a move which shows, according to Pastrana, that
the peace process is at its best moment yet.