U.S. MILITARY CHIEF VISITS BOGOTA TO SUPPORT URIBE

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Under heavy security, the chairman of the U.S.
Joint Chiefs of Staff visited this embattled country Monday to see the
results of billions of dollars in U.S. military aid.

Four rebel bombings that killed eight people over the weekend preceded the
arrival of Gen. Richard B. Myers in Bogota, underscoring the challenge
facing Colombia's government in ending guerrilla attacks.

Authorities blamed the weekend attacks on the leftist Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The government is battling the FARC, a smaller
leftist rebel group, and illegal paramilitary forces formed to combat the
rebels in a four-decade-long civil war that kills an estimated 3,500 people
a year.

The FARC also is accused of setting fire to five southern oil wells on July
12 that are still burning and have caused "enormous" environmental damage,
according to Environment Minister Cecilia Rodriguez. A team from Cudd Well
Control, of Houston, has sent a team to help extinguish the fires, a
company spokesman said.

Hours before Myers and his bodyguards arrived at the Defense Ministry,
President Alvaro Uribe bluntly told reporters at the ministry that military
commanders' jobs were at risk if they did not aggressively prosecute the
war against the rebels.

"Those who are doing poorly and not getting results should hand in their
resignations," said Uribe, who was to meet with Myers on Tuesday.

Myers refused to speak to reporters after meeting with Colombia's defense
minister Monday.

The United States has provided about $3 billion in mostly military aid into
Colombia in the last three years - making the South American nation the
third-largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid.

Myers is in Colombia to show support for Uribe and to see the results of a
U.S.-financed initiative to fumigate cocaine-producing crops controlled by
rebels and their paramilitary foes. More than 370,000 acres of coca, the
raw ingredient of cocaine, have been destroyed since Uribe took office a
year ago.