STRIKE AT REBEL LEADERS TURNS TIDE IN COLOMBIA

BOGOTA, Colombia - A slim and articulate man with an automatic rifle over
his shoulder and a fistful of cash, Marco Aurelio Buendia was one of
Colombia's most feared guerrilla commanders.

After years of terrorizing the mountains ringing the capital, Bogota, his
reputation was legendary. But last week, as Buendia's bosses marked the
40th anniversary of their outlaw army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia - or FARC, as it's known by its Spanish initials - he wasn't
around to celebrate.

That's because he died late last year, one of a string of FARC commanders
who have either perished or been captured in recent months. The losses have
devastated the FARC's senior ranks and may be a major turning point in
Colombia's civil war. While analysts say it is too early to declare
victory, the once-formidable 18,000-strong rebel force appears to be losing
ground.

Despite the recent setbacks, massive revenue from the drug trade with the
United States continues to sustain the FARC's war effort, they add.

But the once-untouchable FARC leadership is coming under pressure from what
some Pentagon officials have dubbed a "decapitation" strategy, led by a
special U.S-funded Commando Battalion charged with hunting down so-called
"high value" rebel targets. Military officials believe that attacking the
FARC at its head is a sure way to disable its effectiveness.

The new units, trained by U.S. Special Forces, began operating late last
year. Large bounties also are being offered for information leading to the
capture of top FARC commanders. Several FARC leaders also now face
extradition to the United States on drug charges.

In fact, Buendia was slain Oct. 30 during an offensive by government troops
to break the rebels' stranglehold on the capital - one of the most senior
FARC field commanders ever captured or killed by the Colombian military.

Buendia was a charismatic, 35-year-old rebel commander who managed one of
the FARC's most lucrative kidnapping networks. His men routinely ambushed
police and army patrols and kidnapped wealthy people for million-dollar
ransoms. Residents of the capital dared not travel the highways out of the
city for fear of running into one of his roadblocks.

Buendia was not his real name. He took it from the novel One Hundred Years
of Solitude, by Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

In an interview with this reporter in May 1998 in the mountains south of
the capital, Buendia defended the kidnappings. An avowed Marxist, he said
hostages were "retained" by his men as a form of taxation.

"The corrupt state is failing in its responsibilities, so someone has to
collect taxes from the capitalists," he said.

Buendia and his men calmly sipped sodas as they observed nervous Colombian
troops edging up the hillside, and air force planes circled overheard.
Buendia laid out FARC plans to lay siege to Bogota, before a final armed
insurrection to overthrow the government.

"The FARC are not so relaxed and confident anymore," said Gen. Hernando
Ortiz, 51, during a detailed briefing for reporters last week on a highly
successful offensive last year to flush Buendia's men out of the mountains
of Cundinamarca that surround the capital.

"In fact, they are not there at all," he added, chuckling.

Operation Libertador, as it was dubbed, targeted an estimated 1,800 rebels
scattered in small units across the densely forested Andean mountain
ridges. Steep canyons and heavy cloud cover provided ideal concealment for
rebel camps.

Such was Buendia's dominion that it took a full-scale military offensive
lasting nine months and involving 6,000 men to snare him.

"He defended himself well," said Ortiz, who commands Bogota's 5th Army
Division. He was finally trapped with 14 rebels on a ridge about 50 miles
from Bogota.

Buendia was buried in a common grave, his identity still unknown. "He took
his name to the grave," said Oritz.

By the time the operation ended late last year, Buendia's rebel force was
decimated, according to the Colombian military. Five of his unit leaders
were killed or captured. Others deserted, and the rest fled.

Kidnapping in Cundinamarca has since virtually ceased, and Bogota residents
can travel out of the city with greater freedom.

Buendia's death was followed by the capture this year of two more senior
commanders, including one of the FARC's best-known public figures, Simon
Trinidad.

In February, troops from a U.S.-trained Anti-Narcotics Battalion swooped on
a female FARC commander, known as "Sonia," alleged to be one of the rebels'
top cocaine managers.

The nighttime raid on her jungle hideout was executed with such precision
that she and an entourage of 16 rebel guards were captured without a shot
being fired. Military sources say computers were also seized, containing
valuable information on the FARC's drug ties, which has led to further
civilian arrests.

"Sonia" is expected to be extradited to the United States as part of a
burgeoning Justice Department investigation into the FARC's drug
trafficking network.

Meanwhile, the Colombian military, once dismissed as ill-led, ill- funded
and ill-equipped, has undergone a dramatic turnaround. Funded by hundreds
of millions of dollars in U.S. aid, and coupled with major internal
restructuring, the military has recruited and equipped thousands of new
professional soldiers.

U.S. aid has also provided dozens of military helicopters, vital to moving
troops in difficult, often inaccessible, mountainous and jungle terrain.

Abandoning a long-standing defensive strategy that kept troops largely
confined to guarding key installations, the military has taken the offensive.

Early this year, the army followed up its successful Cundinamarca operation
with Plan Patriota, a major, ongoing assault on FARC strongholds deep in
the southern jungle of Caqueta province.

U.S. military officials, who provide operational and tactical advice, as
well as sharing electronic intelligence, are increasingly impressed. Unlike
previous short-lived military campaigns, the latest offensive involves
22,000 soldiers and is designed as a long-term effort to restore government
control over the rebel heartland.

"I think I have seen the future in their new aggressiveness," said one U.S.
military official, who for security reasons asked not to be identified.

Still, analysts warn the war is far from over. To be sure, the FARC has
been hard hit, but the armed forces still lack the money, manpower and
equipment to press home the advantage, according to Alfredo Rangel, one of
the country's leading military experts.

"They are very hurt but they are not defeated," said Gen. Martin Carreno,
interviewed in his office at the military High Command. "They can still do
us a lot of harm. But their threat is now terrorism and drugs."

Last week Colombian police thwarted a suspected FARC plot to blow up
bridges and a tunnel on the main highway south, linking Bogota to the city
of Villavicencio. Police found 1 ton of ammonium nitrate hidden in the roof
of a commercial van, the same material used to blow up Oklahoma's Murrah
federal building.

The FARC's dependency on drugs is having a stunning effect on its bitter
struggle with progovernment paramilitaries. The former sworn enemies are
now collaborating in some areas of the country, to secure key drug
processing laboratories and trafficking routes, according to U.S. and
Colombian intelligence reports. Both groups rely on cocaine and heroin
smuggling for as much as 60 percent to 80 percent of their finances,
officials say.

"We have evidence of labs where the paramilitaries process the cocaine and
the FARC run protection," said Col. Oscar Naranjo, Colombia's top drug cop,
who heads the Judicial Police. "The war is creating a new enemy."

That is partly a result of U.S.-funded eradication of coca crops in
Colombia, which has reduced the areas of cultivation, officials say.
Ironically, as the availability of processed cocaine falls, guerrilla and
paramilitary traffickers must work more closely together to protect the
fuel of their conflict.

U.S. and Colombian officials aren't sure what to make of the reports. While
the idea of the two groups cooperating is a nightmarish scenario, it also
suggests a measure of desperation.

On its 40th anniversary, the FARC's goal of Marxist revolution appears to
be fading. Colombia's once deeply ideological conflict is dissolving into a
battle for control of the drug trade.