COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT FACES A DIFFICULT TASK

Colombia has become so violent that the richest people are willing to
pay a new security tax, and the average citizen is accepting the loss
of some civil liberties if that's what it takes to end the anarchy.

This is not surprising.

Last week as he took the oath of office, President Alvaro Uribe felt
the wrath of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the Marxist
guerrillas better known by their Spanish-language initials FARC. The
rebels attacked a poor neighborhood near the Presidential Palace,
killing 21 civilians and injuring dozens of others.

Uribe, elected by a landslide after he promised to take a tough stand
against the FARC, was forced to declare a state of emergency.

The FARC, which has been trying to overthrow the government since
1964, conducted created a reign of terror in recent years. With about
18,000 armed members, the rebel leaders have become wealthy, thanks to
the drug trade, kidnappings and extortion.

As if the FARC wasn't bad enough, the Colombian government also fights
a smaller but equally dangerous rebel group plus a well-organized
paramilitary group whose members kill thousands of defenseless
civilians each year.

And then there are the drug cartels, mainly in Medellin and Cali, two
of Colombia's largest cities.

Although we support Uribe's swift response, we share the concern of
many Colombians that he or the nation's security forces could abuse
their authority in the name of fighting terrorism. The military, after
all, has a long history of human rights abuses.

Equally important, the Uribe administration is likely to ask the
United States for more help, although the government expects to
collect about $800 million from the new security tax.

For the past two years, Washington has sent $1.7 billion, mainly in
military equipment, to the South American nation. Most of that aid,
known as Plan Colombia, was earmarked to fight the drug cartels, but
now it also can be used to fight the rebels.

As happened when Andr=E9s Pastrana was president, the United States
should help Uribe if he asks. But the Bush administration must make it
clear that the United States won't fight Colombia's war.

Uribe, at least for now, seems to have popular support to fight the
insurgents, and he should exercise such a mandate, even if it means
heavy civilian casualties.

Colombians have shown that they are willing to endure losses if that's
what it takes to end the FARC's 38 years of terror.