COLOMBIA DEATH TOLL HITS 35

BOGOTA, Colombia -- A surge of rebel violence left 35 people dead over
the weekend following President Clinton's visit to Colombia, including
seven police officers slain by guerrillas -- some of whom were
disguised as police.

In the latest attack, leftist guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, or FARC, sneaked up on a police station Saturday
in northern Colombia, officials said Sunday.

The assault took the small town of Tomarrazon by surprise, said
National Police operations director Gen. Tobias Duran.

The guerrillas arrived in three trucks and a jeep, some dressed in
camouflage and others as police. Rebels shot to death the four
officers posted at the station and ambushed reinforcements as they
arrived, killing three more policemen, Duran added.

Nine officers survived the attack, in which rebels also destroyed the
public telephone office in the town in Guajira State, about 475 miles
from the capital, Bogota.

At least one FARC fighter died, police said.

Twenty-seven other people were killed in heavy overnight clashes that
ended Saturday in western Colombia. Twelve of them were FARC rebels.

Seven airmen died when their U.S.-built AC-46 gunship, which was sent
to support ground troops, slammed into an Andean peak. At the
mountaintop communications complex they were protecting, eight
soldiers died in fighting with guerrillas.

The rebels were unable to take the complex, which controls cellular
and other telephone links to much of western Colombia.

Clinton's visit to the war-torn South American country was meant to
support President Andres Pastrana's fight against drug traffickers and
leftist rebels who protect drug crops. U.S. and Colombian officials
hope the $1.3 billion anti-narcotics aid package will weaken the
rebels and push them toward peace by cutting into a major income
Source: taxes the FARC levies on the cocaine trade.

But some critics have said the aid, including helicopters and troop
training, is skewed toward the Colombian military, leaving police
forces increasingly vulnerable.

The FARC has stepped up attacks on rural police stations during the
past two months, killing dozens of officers as well as civilians. At
least 231 police have died in the line of duty this year.

FARC attacks continue nationwide despite peace talks begun with
Pastrana in January 1999. The negotiations to end a 36-year conflict
are proceeding slowly and without a cease-fire.

On Sunday, the Colombian navy intercepted a speedboat off its Pacific
coast on Sunday and seized three tons of cocaine, the navy said. Two
people were arrested in the operation, which turned up more than a
hundred packages stuffed with cocaine.