ANTI-DRUG BASE DESTROYED BY COLOMBIA REBELS

Offensive: A strong push by guerrillas leaves nothing left of the nation's
largest facility fighting the cocaine trade.

Bogota, Colombia - The faint voice crackled over the two-way radio:The base
has been destroyed. There is nothing left.The police have been taken away
as hostages,and the soldiers,too."

The voice of Luis Rodriquez, a resident of Miraflores, related a tale of
catastrophe in a jungle village that hosts Colombia's largest police
anti-narcotics base.

Little, if anything, remains of the base at Miraflores, which bore the
brunt of a nationwide rebel offensive that began Monday night, U.S. and
Colombian authorities said. At last tally, the guerrilla onslaught had cost
the lives of 64 police, soldiers and civilians. More than 100 other police
and army troops may have been taken captive or killed, officials said.

Stunned politicians urged Colombians not to give up hope that
President-elect Andres Pastrana may still begin peace talks with guerrillas
after he comes to office Friday. But the offensive underscored that any
talks may occur amid the heat of battle.

The destruction and high death toll from this week's offensive made it one
of the most brutal ever waged by Colomia's guerrillas since they took up
arms in 1964.

Rebel attacks continued well into Wednesday, hitting the towns of Silvia,
Medellin and Uribe and including a car bomb outside an army training school
in Bogota itself.

In Uribe, 95 miles south of the capital, a town official, Ernesto
Rodriguez, said 46 people had been killed during the rebel offensive.

Most eyes were on Miraflores, though, a speck in the vast savannas of
eastern Guaviare state, a region thick with insurgents and coca plantations
that feed Colombia's drug trade.

On Tuesday, all contact was lost with a joint police-army base, which
normally houses 150 to 200 anti-narcotics agents and soldiers. About 500
guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the nation's
largest insurgency, overran the base in a prolonged attack with rockets,
mortars and high-caliber weapons.

Miraflores, 275 miles southeast of Bogota, is a hub for U.S.financed
fumigation planes dropping herbicide on coca fields. The village is
accessible only by air. A dirt strip serves as a runway, surrounded by
crude wooden homes. About 4,000 to 8,000 people live in and around Miraflores.

A U.S. official said no U.S. civilians or Drug Enforcement Administration
agents were believed to be at the base when it was attacked.

"What has happened is terrible," said Sabas Pretelt, head of the country's
Federation of Shop Owners and member of a national peace commission. "But
we Colombians must insist on a peace process. While we are in the darkest
part of the night, we should have hopes for the dawn."

Others suggested that the offensive may awaken residents of Bogota, the
capital of 6 million people, to the violence.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski