BUSINESS GURUS ATTEMPT TO TURN SWORDS TO TECH

Deep in the Colombian mountains, where Marxist guerrillas have waged a
civil war that has left 30,000 people dead since the 1960s, two
fabulously wealthy businessmen from Washington were trying to talk the
rebels out of their revolution.

James Kimsey, co-founder and chairman emeritus of America Online Inc.,
and Joseph Robert, head of a real estate empire built on the wreckage
of the savings-and-loan scandal, earlier this month sat in a camp
cleared out of the jungle. Across the table was a man who has devoted
most of his 69 years to armed conflict aimed at overthrowing the Latin
American ruling class.

"It's the kind of thing that's irresistible to me," said Kimsey, 60,
who has a swagger that befits an Army Ranger who served in the Vietnam
War. "To talk to the oldest guerrilla in the world and to try to
persuade him of the wisdom of how the world is going to change."

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by the Spanish
acronym FARC, is one of the few remaining insurgent groups in the
hemisphere. FARC and the smaller National Liberation Army control 40
percent of the Colombian countryside. The 15,000-strong FARC, which
claims to represent farmers, labor organizers and other
disenfranchised people, regularly mounts attacks on prisons and police
stations while purportedly forging ties with drug lords trafficking in
cocaine and heroin.

The Colombian government has launched an unusual campaign -- with the
help of U.S. government and business representatives -- to speed the
peace process by educating the guerrillas in modern ideas about
investing, technology and the workplace.

To leaders of the booming U.S. economy such as Kimsey and Robert,
guerrilla groups who still brim with the slogans of Cold War-era
geopolitics are as outdated as typewriter ribbons and telephones with
dials. On March 3, the two visitors sat with FARC's leader, Manuel
Marulanda -- described to them by U.S. and Colombian officials as
humorless and rude, tough and quick-tempered. Kimsey and Robert urged
the rebel to sign on to their three-point "action plan": Stop killing
people; stop trafficking in drugs; create economic prosperity through
peace.

The way the two men saw it, the personal characteristics that led them
to start risky but ultimately successful businesses could also help
cut through years of ill will between the rebels and the Colombian
government.

Kimsey and Robert have been friends for years. Their latest adventure
began in late January, when the two were among a dozen executives from
around the world invited by Colombian President Andres Pastrana to
visit the country and advise its top leaders on how to lure foreign
investment.

Later Pastrana, Robert and Kimsey decided that a personal visit to
Marulanda might be productive.

What Robert and Kimsey wanted to tell Marulanda was that prosperity
can come to the peasantry only after the violence and drug trade is
stopped. Their message of economic promise, though, must compete with
the current reality: The rebels earn $500 million a year or more from
extortion, kidnapping people for ransom and protecting the drug trade.

Though they realize their trip won't bring an end to drug trafficking,
Kimsey said, Marulanda did state to a TV crew from "60 Minutes" --
which accompanied them -- that he was against drugs. He also said FARC
would support Colombia's transition from drug-related farming to other
commercial crops.

That, Kimsey hopes, will create pressure for the rebel leader to act
on his words.