Colombia Rebels Lobby vs. Aid Bill

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Leftist rebels lobbied Friday against a
controversial Colombia aid package moving through the U.S. Congress,
inviting American legislators to come visit them in the jungle.

The rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, called for
lawmakers to tour coca plantations and see how rural poverty underlies the
South American country's booming cocaine trade.

The visitors would see firsthand that solving the drug problem ``has nothing
to do armed helicopters or spraying which destroys our ecosystem, nor with
sophisticated intelligence equipment or American troops,'' said a statement
read to Radionet radio by FARC commander Ivan Rios. The statement said it
would be more effective to legalize drugs.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a $1.7 billion emergency aid
package Thursday aimed at helping Colombia regain control of the country's
south, where the FARC taxes drug traffickers and peasants who grow coca
plants.

The Senate must still consider the plan, which would provide Colombia with
dozens of military helicopters and pay for a stepped-up police program to
fumigate drug crops with deadly herbicides.

Critics worry the United States is getting dangerously involved in a
decades-old guerrilla conflict that has claimed at least 30,000 lives.

In its statement, the FARC invited the lawmakers to Cartagena del Chaira, a
poor southern town where it has proposed a pilot project to help wean poor
farmers away from drug crops.

The aid package being debated in Washington includes funds for so-called
alternative development programs. But U.S. officials have said they would
not be willing to work with the FARC, the region's largest leftist
insurgency.

The U.S. government cut off diplomatic contacts with the FARC last year
after a rebel unit abducted and killed three American pro-Indian activists
in Colombia.

The State Department has discouraged meetings over the past year between the
FARC and American visitors, including one U.S. congressman and several
international businessmen invited by the Colombian government.

President Andres Pastrana is engaged in peace talks with the group and has
encouraged outside contacts as a way to bring the rebels out of isolation.