COLOMBIAN REBEL GROUP PLANS CRACKDOWN ON CORRUPTION

BOGOTA, Colombia -- The major rebel army in Colombia plans to crack down on
corruption, blaming drugs -- their illegality and the United States' war on
them -- for the extensive problems of public bribery in the country.

The Revolutionary Armed Force of Colombia, known as FARC, has said it will
introduce a "law" to punish corrupt people, said Ivan Marquez, a guerrilla,
during a news conference Wednesday. The news conference was held in San
Vicente de Caguan, a municipality in the demilitarized zone where peace
negotiations between FARC and the Colombian government are taking place.

"We are going to legislate in this matter because it is one of the most
serious problems facing the country," Marquez said.

He did not disclose what punishment would be imposed, but the guerrillas
have a tradition of murdering officials accused of committing fraud. The
rebels also have subjected some to revolutionary trials.

Mayors have been the main victims with, on average, two killed a month.

Negotiator wants more information to fight graft

Raul Reyes, a FARC negotiator, said the guerrilla organization wants "to
fight corruption wherever it may be, because it is everywhere."

"For that reason we need to have more information and have a greater
exchange of views to take drastic measures against it."

Reyes said one of those measures should be the return of everything that has
been stolen from Colombia.

Guerrillas urge U.S. to legalize drugs

Alfonso Cano, a FARC commander and second in command of the guerrilla army,
said his organization wants the United States -- "the main consuming country
in the world" -- to legalize consumption of psychotropic substances. This,
Cano said, would kill the drug business.

"We repudiate drug trafficking," he said. "If the U.S. legalizes drugs and
organizes the treatment of its patients using the money being spent on the
so-called 'war on drugs,' the business as such would disappear because the
volume of money that is involved is due to the fact that it is illegal."

Cano said that under a legalized drugs system, "all that money that goes to
intermediaries, to the soldiers and the police and the sailors, the customs
authorities, the people who have the planes, all of that, which is what
makes the prices so high, comes crashing down."

"Thus humanity will be able to begin controlling with the aim of liquidating
those narcotics."

Colombian government pulls out of drugs conference

Cano alleged that the possibility of U.S. interference in the internal
affairs of Colombia was a result of the political manipulation of the war on
drug trafficking. That, he said, worsened the situation.

But there has been zero response to the FARC request from the U.S.
government and Congress, to whom a letter on the drug-legalization proposal
had been sent, he added.

Meanwhile, the Colombian government of President Andres Pastrana has
withdrawn from a rebel-hosted conference on the production of drug crops in
the country after rebels allegedly detonated an explosive device on May 15,
killing a dairy farmer and a policeman.

FARC has denied that any of its fighters were in the area of the attack in
central Boyaca province.

The conference is to start on May 29 in the huge rebel-controlled southern
enclave from which Pastrana pulled his troops as a gesture of peace.

Ambassadors and delegates from 21 countries, including the United States,
Canada and Europe, have been invited along with United Nations special
adviser Jan Egeland.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.