U.S. DENOUNCES DEADLY GUERRILLA ATTACK ON COLOMBIAN NAVAL
BASE

WASHINGTON -- The State Department on Tuesday condemned Colombia's
Marxist rebels for attacking a naval base near the border with Panama,
saying the raid demonstrated the guerrillas hold little interest in
peace.

"We gave little credence to the FARC's proclamations of their peaceful
intentions," said State Department spokesman James Foley, using the
Spanish acronym for the guerrilla movement, the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia. "This incident only reinforces our skepticism
about the FARC.

"These attacks once more demonstrate the FARC's apparent lack of
interest in moving quickly to achieve a peaceful resolution to the
decades-long conflict in Colombia."

Foley said the Clinton administration remains committed to supporting
Colombian President Andres Pastrana.

The attack occurred Sunday when about 600 FARC rebels attacked the
naval base at Jurado, near Colombia's border with Panama. The
guerrillas killed at least 45 marines in the attack, which took place
two days before ceremonies marking the symbolic hand-over of the
Panama Canal by the United States. The navy said it killed 42 rebels
in the fighting, but it has not provided any evidence to back that
claim.

The government casualties at Jurado were the largest since 70 police
and soldiers died in a nationwide rebel offensive in July.

The navy's chief commander, Adm. Sergio Garcia, said Tuesday that his
troops had regained control of Jurado.

U.S. military authorities have said the FARC guerrillas, who hold sway
in the frontier zone, could attack inside Panama and even the canal
itself once the U.S. pullout is complete.

The United States has given Colombia more than $280 million a year in
military and economic aid, much of it to train and equip Colombian
army anti-narcotics units.

Ostensibly the forces are being trained to combat the drug trade but
they almost are certain to see action against the rebels, who reap a
fortune from taxing the drug trade.

Pastrana's government has asked the Clinton administration for $1.5
billion over three years to combat drugs, strengthen Colombian
institutions and boost the economy.

Foley said: "This is one of the issues that have the highest priority
of the State Department, the White House, and indeed I would say the
Congress as well."

"There's been a lot of sentiment in Congress in favor of our assisting
President Pastrana as he implements his plan, and we are very much
committed to assisting him.

"I think you'll see early in the new year that we'll be putting some
concrete details out about our intentions in that regard."

The package of aid for Colombia did not make it into the financial
year 2000 appropriations bills passed by Congress last month, but
State Department officials have said they may submit a supplemental
bill when the package is ready.

The spokesman's strong statements on the FARC show how much has
changed since the rebels held direct talks with U.S. officials in
Costa Rica in December 1998.

At that time, the FARC was about to embark on peace talks with the
Colombian government.

Pastrana has invested huge political capital in this bid to bring a
negotiated end to the war, which has claimed more than 35,000 lives,
many of them civilians, in the last 10 years.

But progress has been slow, and the rebels have never agreed to a
cease-fire. The government and the rebels, who have grown stronger
thanks to a string of devastating military strikes over the last three
years, still are haggling over which issue to negotiate first.

The rebels followed up the assault on the navy base with an attack on
a police station that left three officers dead, officials said Tuesday.

The police died when at least 100 guerrillas stormed a small outpost
at Cubara on Monday, near Colombia's eastern border with Venezuela,
regional police chief Col. Luis Eduardo Tafur told Radionet radio.