NOBEL WRITER IS COLOMBIAN GO-BETWEEN

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Nobel prize-winning Colombian writer, has been
acting as a behind-the-scenes negotiator in talks between Washington and
Bogota on how to quell Colombia's drug and civil wars.

The author helped bring together Presidents Clinton and Andres Pastrana
earlier this year. He has also used his close friendship with Fidel Castro
to enable Mr Pastrana to talk to the Cuban-linked rebels waging war in his
country.

In an interview with the New Yorker magazine, Garcia Marquez, 72, tells how
his fame and the respect he commands in his divided country enables him to
act as a "fixer". The violence in Colombia has now reached a point where 200
people are kidnapped and 2,000 are murdered a month.

Since the summer, America has pledged hundreds of million of pounds to help
the Colombian government fight FARC, the richest rebel group in Latin
America. Garcia Marquez's interview was published on the day Mr Pastrana
came to New York to present his political strategy to the United Nations.
Today he will travel to Washington to meet Mr Clinton, Congressional
leaders, and senior drug enforcement officials.