COLOMBIAN REBELS RESUME ATTACKS AS TRUCE ENDS

Strikes Follow U.S. Aid Offer

BOGOTA -- Ending a 20-day holiday truce, Marxist-led Colombian guerrillas
launched simultaneous attacks on four southern towns Tuesday, laying waste
three police headquarters, part of a mayor's office and a bank, the
government reported today.

The attacks--carried out by 300 members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia (FARC), Colombia's largest guerrilla group--left three
policemen and a civilian dead, officials said. Army troops repelled the
guerrillas in a counterattack, killing more than 20 rebel combatants, the
military reported.

The renewed rebel attacks coincided with a Clinton administration proposal
to provide $ 1.3 billion in additional aid over two years to help this
Andean nation fight the guerrillas--who authorities say earn millions of
dollars protecting drug traffickers in the large section of the country
under their control.

Colombia has already been allocated almost $ 300 million in U.S. aid,
bringing the two-year total to $ 1.6 billion in what the administration has
said is a firm commitment to help President Andres Pastrana's government
combat the flow of Colombian cocaine and heroin to the United States. The
new aid money makes the country the third-largest recipient of U.S.
military assistance, behind Israel and Egypt.

Further underlining the U.S. commitment, Secretary of State Madeleine K.
Albright has scheduled a visit here this weekend to discuss the new aid
package.

Pastrana "has a strategy that he believes makes sense for . . . addressing
the drug problem," said White House spokesman Joe Lockhart. "We have an
interest in helping them do that because of our own national security
interests."

The attacks Tuesday occurred in the state of Narino, a mountainous region
along the Ecuadorian border known for its vast opium poppy and coca fields,
the raw materials for heroin and cocaine.

The rebels had been dormant since Dec. 20, complying with a government
request for a Christmas cease-fire.

Peace talks are scheduled to resume Thursday.

Both the U.S. and the Colombian governments have said the country's 15,000
FARC guerrillas have financed much of their 35-year-old campaign by taxing
drug traffickers, processors and farmers who grow the coca and opium
poppies. U.S. officials have said that their main goal is to stanch the
flow of drugs but that U.S. assistance can also be used to combat the
guerrillas to the extent their activities help the drug trade or hinder
attempts to rein it in.

The southern portion of the country is the main target area for these
efforts. Most of the U.S. money would go toward training three more army
anti-drug battalions and providing Colombia with 30 Black Hawk and 33 UH-1N
Huey helicopters, other types of aircraft, radar equipment and intelligence
gathering gear. Colombia inaugurated its first U.S.-funded 1,000-member
rapid deployment force last year.

The aid would form part of Pastrana's $ 7.5 billion "Plan Colombia"--$ 3.5
million of it in foreign aid--which is designed to suppress drug
trafficking as well as shore up the country's ailing economy. "I want to
emphasize the fact that the U.S. government has embraced our integrated
strategy to create employment, peace and institution-building," a delighted
Pastrana told Colombian reporters.

The U.S. package calls for $ 145 million in alternative economic
development, including crop substitution programs for farmers growing opium
poppies and coca, and $ 93 million for "expanding the rule of law." Since
taking office, Pastrana has enjoyed clear support from the Clinton
administration even while his domestic approval ratings have tumbled.

"U.S. aid in and of itself cannot help Pastrana," said Alfredo Rangel, an
adviser to former president Ernesto Samper. "The president needs to change
the country's expectations with regards to the economy and the peace talks."