COLOMBIA'S CIVILIANS CAUGHT BETWEEN 2 OPPOSING MILITIAS

SAN ISIDRO, Colombia - At almost any sudden noise, the children in Adiela
Vela's class give a startled jump. Eyes dart through windows to a band of
right-wing militiamen whose weapons are trained down the road.

Leftist rebels are only about a mile away, manning their own outpost on the
rutted dirt track.

This is the front line in the battle for the heart of the world's
cocaine-producing industry. And not only are civilians caught in the cross
fire, they are also now enduring a rebel blockade.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - the largest of the leftist
rebel groups that have been fighting the government and right-wing
paramilitaries for years in a bloody civil war - imposed the armed shutdown
five weeks ago. Most of the world's coca, from which cocaine is made, is
grown in southern Colombia's Putumayo state, and the rebel group launched
the shutdown to protest a planned U.S.-backed offensive to stamp out the
drug trade here.

The FARC rebels have banned vehicles from traveling between towns in all
but the limited areas under the control of the army or the rightist
paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known as the AUC.
Violators can be killed or have their cars set ablaze.

The rebels have threatened to maintain the armed shutdown until President
Andres Pastrana revamps his Plan Colombia, the initiative that calls for
U.S.-trained army troops to seize the coca fields.

"Our ideology is to defend the worker, the common man. If they want to work
the coca, then they should be permitted to do so," explained a rebel,
wearing a camouflage uniform and a black FARC neckerchief, as he guarded a
rural road.

There is also a financial motive: The FARC and the AUC are getting rich by
taxing cocaine producers.

The AUC, which arrived in Putumayo a year ago from northwest Colombia, now
controls several towns and is pushing further into FARC territory.

The AUC, which is backed by many Colombian landowners, sprang up to counter
the spread of the leftist rebel groups. The government acknowledges there
are some unofficial links between the military and the AUC but says it is
acting to sever those ties, and has fired several generals who allegedly
supported AUC operations.

Terrified Colombians are heading the other way. Thousands have fled to
Ecuador since September, according to relief agencies.

"With the paramilitaries and the FARC fighting for territory, anyone can
wind up getting shot - either in the cross fire or after being accused of
collaborating with the other side," said a man who recently fled across the
border.