Talking Peace on Rebel Turf

Colombian President Goes To Jungle To See Guerrilla Chief

BOGOTA -- Seeking to salvage a faltering peace initiative, President Andres
Pastrana ventured into a guerrilla-held patch of jungle today to sit with
Colombia's most powerful rebel leader and look for a way to spare their
battered country from a broader war.

Under a downpour in the steamy southern jungle, Pastrana huddled throughout
the day with Manuel Marulanda, who has spent more than half his 70 years
fighting the government as head of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC). The two embraced gingerly surrounded by rebels in
camouflage uniforms in the Switzerland-size region that Pastrana cleared of
security forces two years ago to foster peace talks. They then moved into a
thatched pavilion for their discussions.

"Everyone wants peace," Marulanda said in a passing remark to a television
reporter. "Hope is the last thing one loses."

The talks, held in the village of Los Pozos, about 200 miles south of
Bogota, the capital, gave Pastrana and Marulanda what could be their last
opportunity to revive the stalled peace process, Colombian officials said.
Pastrana and Marulanda emerged late this afternoon and declared that the
talks had been cordial and useful but that another day of discussions would
be needed.

"We have decided to meet and continue this conversation tomorrow," said
Pastrana, who planned to spend the night at a vacant military base near the
meeting site. "The meeting was very productive, and we will continue working."

Standing at Pastrana's side, Marulanda said, "I feel very satisfied about
this meeting and back the words of the president."

The meeting came at a perilous moment for Pastrana's peace campaign, which
has long been viewed with skepticism in Washington. U.S. officials have
promoted a harder line against the FARC, which they say has taken on a
major role in drug smuggling. A key goal of the $ 1.3 billion U.S.
anti-drug aid package for Colombia, the bulk of which is military hardware
and training for anti-drug battalions, is to eliminate the cocaine
production that is the FARC's chief source of revenue.

State Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher said in Washington that "the
government of Colombia must be free to make its own decision on what would
yield progress in the peace process. We have always said we would welcome
developments that help Colombia move toward peace, national reconciliation
and progress against narcotics traffic." But State Department officials
said that, while wishing Pastrana well, they were not holding their breath.

Guerrilla negotiators withdrew from the peace talks in November and had
refused to return unless Pastrana addressed the rising power of privately
funded paramilitary groups that are battling the guerrillas. They had also
requested a discussion of the effects of Plan Colombia, as the anti-drug
strategy is known. Pastrana, elected in June 1998 on a pledge to end
decades of civil war, must decide Friday whether to keep the demilitarized
zone open or effectively abandon the peace process in favor of a military
approach backed by an increasing number of Colombians.

A more bellicose strategy likely would increase civil conflict in a country
that last year registered an average of 71 violent deaths a day. Pastrana's
plunge into guerrilla territory with only a small contingent of bodyguards
underscored his desire to keep even an imperfect peace process alive in
light of its harsh alternative.

"He is trying to catch a bull by the horns," said Horacio Serpa, leader of
the opposition Liberal Party. "If this process cannot be restarted after a
meeting of these two men, then it is broken beyond repair."

In recent weeks, Pastrana has been under growing public pressure,
particularly from conservatives, to secure concessions from the guerrillas
in return for extending the term of the zone. The FARC has also come under
pressure, primarily from European diplomats and international
intermediaries, to rejoin the talks. Any guerrilla concession would help
counter growing public opinion that the 17,000-member rebel group was
participating in the process to bide time while it consolidated its armed
strength across the country.

Pastrana, who called for the meeting last week, is seeking first to coax
the FARC back to the peace table. He also hopes to arrange an exchange of
rebel prisoners for captured members of Colombia's security forces, about
450 of whom remain in FARC open-air prisons in the demilitarized zone.

The president is likely to propose that international observers be allowed
to monitor the demilitarized zone for human rights abuses and, perhaps, to
help mediate peace negotiations. A similar international presence was
contemplated when Pastrana created the zone in November 1998, but FARC
leaders have resisted.

Marulanda, known as "Sure Shot," agreed to meet Pastrana only if the agenda
included Plan Colombia, a prisoner exchange accord and government plans to
battle the rebels' paramilitary rivals, who are flourishing across the
country. With an estimated 8,000 members, the paramilitary forces pose
perhaps the biggest threat to the FARC.

Rebel negotiators left the peace table to protest what they alleged was the
government's failure to take on the paramilitary groups, known as the
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, which also profit enormously from
Colombia's drug trade. International human rights groups have called on the
government to crack down on the paramilitary forces, accusing security
forces of sometimes working with them against the guerrillas.

Marulanda, the son of a farmer, and Pastrana, the son of a president, have
both benefited from their relationship. Marulanda publicly supported
Pastrana's candidacy, making him the "peace candidate" and helping him win
a close election. Before Pastrana took office in August 1998, he met with
the guerrilla leader to signal the lengths he intended to go to secure peace.

The two men have met twice since but never with the stakes so high. Upon
arriving in the zone with two physicians, a priest, his private secretary
and his chief peace negotiator, Pastrana greeted Marulanda and walked among
the rebels. At one point, a young female guerrilla darted out to drape a
khaki-green raincoat over the president's shoulders, squeezing him
affectionately in the process.

Staff writer Steven Mufson in Washington contributed to this report.