COLOMBIA REBEL FORCE MARKS ITS 37TH YEAR

BOGOTA, Colombia - A U.S.-backed offensive against cocaine crops
threatens one of its main sources of cash. Kidnappings, extortion and
attacks on defenseless towns have turned public opinion against it.

Yet nearly four decades into its struggle, the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia is brimming with confidence. As it quietly
celebrated another birthday Sunday, Colombia's largest rebel army
feels it has never been stronger.

"At 37 years of age, the FARC is at its peak," senior rebel commander
Andres Paris said in a telephone call from the rebel-controlled
village of Los Pozos.

"We have a nationwide presence, politically and militarily, and we
have become an important reference point for all Colombians who dream
of peace," he added.

Paris said the FARC had no plans to hold big celebrations.

Two small bombs exploded in Cali, the third-largest city, on Sunday,
the latest in a wave of bombings that have unnerved Colombians. The
explosions in front of a police station and a prison injured one
person and damaged nearby buildings. It wasn't immediately clear who
planted the bombs, however. Criminal gangs, paramilitary militias and
guerrilla groups are all waging violent campaigns.

FARC has risen from a ragtag band of communist peasants to Latin
America's most powerful insurgency. FARC's 16,000-member army has
inflicted pain on government forces and gained control of huge areas
outside Colombia's major cities.

The rebel advance has lead to unprecedented government
concessions.

Seeing guerrilla sincerity about peace where few others did, President
Andres Pastrana handed over a huge southern territory to the rebels in
November 1998. Paris spoke from inside this so-called demilitarized
zone. The government hopes the DMZ will become a laboratory for peace.
However, peace talks have so far gone nowhere, and Pastrana's own
military says the area - which is off-limits to government troops and
police - has become a haven for arms and drug smuggling, and kidnap
negotiations.