KICKED BY REBELS, COLOMBIA PUMPS UP MILITARY MUSCLE

The Situation In The Countryside Is Dire, But Reforms And Money, Some
Of It American, Are Paying Off In A New Self-Respect

BARRANCABERMEJA, Colombia - This steamy oil city in the heart of
Colombia has long been known as one of the most violent places in all
of Latin America.

But when the situation began to turn even deadlier than usual late
last year, local officials pleaded with the government for extra help.
Local security forces -- 400 police and more than 1,000 army troops --
couldn't cope.

In response, an elite 70-man team of Colombian Special Forces was sent
to Barranca -- the name most Colombians use -- to try to restore a
semblance of order. But in the first six weeks of this year the death
toll only continued to rise.

Between Jan. 2 and Feb. 13 there were a staggering 72 victims, almost
all young men shot to death, their bodies riddled with bullets.

Military officers whose job it is to guard Barranca admit the results
may not look good. But the odds are overwhelming.

Dominated by Colombia's largest oil refinery, all the actors in the
nation's 40-year-old conflict -- drug traffickers, guerrillas and
rival paramilitaries -- converge on this city of 210,000 on the
swirling, muddy-brown Magdalena River.

Undermanned, underfinanced and historically shunned by Colombia's
wealthy elite, Colombia's beleaguered military has long struggled to
establish its identity as the rightful defender of national security.

For the military, plagued for years by a poor human rights record and
failures on the battlefield, it has been an uphill task.

But boosted by a radical series of internal reforms and a new
leadership with strong government support, it seems to be gaining new
confidence.

Backed by new injections of cash, from both the Colombian government
and the United States, the 146,000-member armed forces have radically
improved their performance in the past three years. Human rights
complaints have fallen dramatically. The military also has begun to
score some notable combat victories.

"It's just the beginning," said Alfredo Rangel, a Defense Ministry
consultant and one of Colombia's top military analysts. "They (the
military) have achieved a lot in a relatively short time. But there's
still a lot more to do."

Much like the U.S. military during Vietnam, the Colombian armed forces
feel their role in the conflict is misrepresented and misunderstood.
For years the war has gone on far away from the cities where the great
majority of Colombians live.

Unlike other countries in Latin America where military rulers took
power, Colombia's powerful political class kept the generals at arm's
length. While a lurking guerrilla threat was confined to remote areas
of the countryside, having a strong military wasn't deemed a priority.

The war was largely fought by a conscript army of peasants from the
countryside. Pay and conditions were deplorable. "They were treated
like mercenaries," Rangel said.

Wealthy families simply bribed officials to keep their sons out of the
military draft. "In my case I never even knew what my dad did," said
Daniel Garcia-Pena, a Colombian peace activist. "It was just a
foregone conclusion that I wasn't going to war."

But the failure of successive Colombian governments to deal with
mounting rural poverty and discontent left the field open to the guerrillas.

Crime and paramilitaries

By the time Colombia's internal conflict began to heat up in 1980s,
fueled by guerrilla kidnappings, war taxes and the advent of the drug
trade, the armed forces were ill-equipped to deal with the new wave of
violence.

Nowhere is that more evident than in Barranca, where the scene is
almost apocalyptic.

In the city, armed groups fight for control of a local organized crime
group, the Gasoline Cartel, which nightly smuggles thousands of
gallons of gas stolen from the refinery. The local oil pipelines are
so peppered with illegal valves that officials call them "the flute."

In the countryside the battle is for control of the cocaine trade that
moves silently up and down the river.

For years the city was a stronghold of Colombia's second-largest
guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army, or ELN.

Residents described how paramilitary gunmen of the rightist Self-
Defense Forces, or AUC, arrived in December vowing to wrest control of
its poor eastern barrios from well-entrenched rebels.

They found ready recruits in a city where residents are tired of
guerrilla abuses and unemployment runs at 70 percent. "They offered
$250 (monthly salaries), a cell phone and a gun to any young kid
willing to join," said Yolanda Becerra, head of a local woman's group.
"It was 'Either you take this, you leave or you die.' "

Military officials confess they have been able to do little to stop
the AUC onslaught.

"The Colombian army has 146,000 men and Colombians think we have
146,000 men to protect them," said Col. Hernan Moreno, commander of
the local army battalion. "But we have to do all kinds of other jobs
that aren't our responsibility," he added. "In the barrios where I
have my biggest problem I have only 150 men."

Moreno and other officers say they are ill-equipped to deal with urban
warfare in narrow streets controlled by rival armed groups.

Rebel lookouts shoot off fireworks to warn of approaching police or
army patrols. Streets are booby-trapped with explosives hidden in
roadside trees or dug into speed bumps, which can be detonated with
car alarms, beepers and cell phones.

Security is so bad there are no police stations in the entire eastern
half of the city.

To make things worse, many ELN deserters recently switched sides to
join the paramilitary. "We are dealing with a chameleon. It's one
color one day and another the next," Moreno said. "They are all
clandestine. They all know who they are. We are the only ones who
don't know, and we wear uniforms so they all know who we are."

Even so, residents complain the army should be doing more to protect
lives.

"Barranca not a city for living, it's a city for producing," said
Roman Catholic Archbishop Jaime Prieto. "The military and the police
offer security to the oil industry, not the people."

Residents also say that military non-intervention in the urban
conflict creates an ambiguous impression.

"The population feel the military is creating a circle of protection
in which the paramilitary can operate," said Francisco de Roux, head
of a local development group.

But de Roux is one of a growing number of local activists who have
lately discovered new confidence -- albeit tentative -- in Colombia's
military chiefs. He cites the recent arrival in the region of Gen.
Martin Carreno, head of the 5th Brigade, which commands the region.

On several recent instances, de Roux said, Carreno has intervened
swiftly to free residents kidnapped by the paramilitary.

A pocket-sized Napoleon, Carreno, 53, is fiercely proud of his
reputation as an even-handed officer ready to give combat to all
illegal armed groups.

"This is a new army with a new strategy," he said, speaking at his
jungle headquarters at Sogamoso Bridge, a 10-minute helicopter ride
north of Barranca on a tributary of the Magdalena River.

"Without weakening our counterguerrilla operations we are beginning to
mount larger operations against the paramilitaries." In the last few
days Carreno's men occupied the jungle headquarters of a notorious
local AUC commander known as "Julian," seizing communications
equipment and some weapons. The paramilitaries put up no resistance
and fled the base before the military arrived.

A copy of a military textbook, Elements of the Art of War, sits on his
desk in the main operations room. The war has entered a new phase, he
said. "It's a war of hearts and minds that we have to win. The
important thing here is the civilian population. That's the most
important thing in winning the war."

He was worried by the growth of the paramilitaries, now said to number
more than 8,000 men nationwide. Carreno said the AUC had taken control
of thousands of acres of local coca crops.

"It's a grave problem. We have to attack them," he said. "We can't let
it advance before it grows out of control."

He was also acutely aware of public insecurity but expressed
frustration with politicians who had failed to provide local services
and create employment.

"Here I am attacking the guerrillas and paramilitary, but someone has
to address the social problems. That's what the Colombian state has to
do," he said.

Building military

Carreno's success has become a model for the new-look army. He
attributes the new fighting spirit to an unparalleled commitment by
Colombia's government, coupled with the most far-reaching military
reforms in the country's history.

The reforms cover all areas of training and doctrine, including
greater emphasis on human rights, and improved operational
coordination.

The centerpiece of the military renovation is a three-year plan to
dramatically increase the number of professional soldiers. When the
reforms began the army could count on only 21,156 professional
soldiers. By December that number had more than doubled to 43,200, and
is due to reach 55,000 by the end of this year.

Beginning in August, President Andres Pastrana issued a series of
decrees reshaping the military justice system and for the first time
giving the government discretionary authority to dismiss officers.

Military courts were ordered to relinquish all jurisdiction over grave
human rights violations by officers. A new Military Justice Corps was
also created with professional judge advocates independent of the rest
of the military structure.

In an unprecedented move, Defense Minister Luis Ramirez
unceremoniously dismissed 388 military officers in October.

Military experts concur that the long-overdue reform package is making
a difference.

"It's a tremendous step forward," said Dennis Rempe, a Canadian
military scholar who has studied the Colombian armed forces.

But Rempe and others stress the nation's deeper structural problems
will be solved only when the Colombians demonstrate the kind of social
and political commitment sadly lacking in the past.

"This is not a military problem, it's about nation-building," he said.
"The military know that. They are on the front end of it. It's not
about killing guerrillas."

Bush meets Pastrana President Bush will meet with President Andres
Pastrana of Colombia on Tuesday in Washington to discuss the drug war
and the peace process in the war-torn country.

The meeting is another sign that Bush plans to forge close ties with
Latin America, a region with which he feels especially comfortable.