COLOMBIA'S PEACE PATH IS A TREACHEROUS ROUTE

Los Pozos, Colombia -- Latin America's most formidable Marxist rebel
group is continuing to carve a place for itself into Colombia's
landscape -- literally.

The 17,000-strong Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the
FARC, narrowly averted an escalation of its war with Colombia's
government last week, when it agreed to return to 3-year-old peace
talks that had stalled several months ago.

Now the FARC is calmly putting the finishing touches on a massive
Soviet-style monument chiseled into the side of a cliff inside a large
territory the group controls near the border with Ecuador.

With a hammer and sickle and other symbols of rebellion, the
30-by-100-foot frieze celebrates the FARC's 38-year Communist
insurrection.

"That's me. Doesn't it look like me?" said FARC commander Jaime
Martinez, 44, gazing proudly at one of the muscled weapon-toting
figures sculpted into the side of a cliff and painted bronze.

Monday, the rebels faced a deadline set by President Andres Pastrana,
who threatened to send government soldiers in to reoccupy the rebels'
16,000-square-mile safe zone if they didn't return to
negotiations.

Pastrana ceded the land to the FARC three years ago as a demilitarized
zone to get peace talks started.

Today, the FARC faces another deadline, when Pastrana must decide,
under the terms of the original accord, whether to continue to allow
the rebels to remain in the Switzerland-sized territory.

Most political observers believe Pastrana will reauthorize the zone as
long as basic progress is made toward establishing a timetable for
negotiations to proceed.

More difficult is getting the FARC, as it agreed in October, to stop
its practice of indiscriminately kidnapping civilians of all
nationalities and picking some to hold for ransom.

Colombia has one of the highest kidnapping rates in the world. About
3,500 people a year die in kidnappings, guerrilla assaults and attacks
on civilians by outlawed anti-rebel paramilitary groups.

The FARC is Latin America's oldest surviving guerrilla insurgency, a
Cold War relic whose leaders cling stubbornly to armed struggle in
their quest for power and to end inequality in Colombia.

In addition to kidnappings for ransom, the FARC is believed to profit
from Colombia's lucrative cocaine trade. Colombia produces up to 90
percent of the world's cocaine.

Critical to the peace process is what to do about the equally
well-armed anti-rebel paramilitary groups, which also are said to
profit from the cocaine trade. The paramilitary soldiers regularly
slaughter civilians they accuse of collaborating with rebels.

Even as the clock ticked toward last Monday's deadline, the FARC
invaded a town in western Colombia's Narino province, engaging police
in a 10-hour shootout. When police ran out of ammunition, the FARC
dragged nine policemen into the street, tortured them and shot them
dead before robbing a bank.

Just hours after the FARC agreed to go back to the table, guerrillas
blasted open a prison Tuesday, killing a guard and freeing 29
guerrilla prisoners. The guerrillas also blew up two electrical pylons
and on Wednesday kidnapped seven tourists, including a well-known
Colombian cardiologist, at a Pacific coast beach.

The FARC, whose guerrillas were blamed for the slayings of three
American environmental activists in 1999, faces growing condemnation
abroad and at home. But a 20 percent unemployment rate in Colombia --
plus the lure of carrying a gun -- has increased its ranks among
peasants and urban poor.

Colombia is a key concern for the United States because of the drug
trade conducted here. In 2000, the U.S. government gave Pastrana's
government more than $1 billion in mostly military aid --- including
helicopters --- to combat the narcotics industry.

Many Colombians believe the talks between the FARC and the government
have reached a pivotal point, primarily because of the heavy
international pressure that's been applied. Colombians credit United
Nations special envoy James LeMoyne, a former journalist who covered
guerrilla wars in Central America, with helping restore the
negotiations.

LeMoyne and diplomats from Canada, Cuba, Sweden, France and other countries
continue to be deeply involved as "facilitators" in the talks.