'NOTHING LEFT' OF POLICE BASE IN COLOMBIA

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 Rodriguez, 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 Colombia's guerrillas since they took up
arms in 1964.

Rebel attacks continued well into Wednesday. Guerrillas swarmed into
Silvia, a mountain town in southern Cauca state, peppering a police station
with gunfire, and placed a car bomb in front of an army training school in
Bogota. The bomb was deactivated. In Medellin, a man tossed a grenade in a
crowded street, killing one person and wounding 11 others.

In Uribe, 95 miles south of Bogota, 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 (FARC), the
nation's largest insurgency, overran the base in a prolonged attack with
rockets, mortars and high-caliber weapons.

Up to 200 police and army personnel in Miraflores ``are missing and
presumed dead or captured,'' said a U.S. government official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity. ``Colombian government efforts to reinforce and
counterattack the beleaguered base were hampered by poor weather.''

Uncertainty

A police spokesman, who also requested anonymity, said authorities are
still unsure of what happened, and whether there are any survivors.

``There are two hypotheses: One is that the agents are hiding in the
jungle. The second is that no one is left alive,'' he said.

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.

Witness accounts

Limited news from Miraflores arrived via ham radio conversations with two
local residents. Contacted by the Radionet station, Luis Rodriguez said he
was speaking from a building across the street from the base.

``The base was taken over and destroyed. We no longer have any soldiers or
any policemen,'' he said.

What happened to the police on the base, he was asked.

``The few who were left [alive] were taken away,'' came the answer.

The guerrillas took them?

``Yes, sir. Yes, sir.''

How many were taken away?

``We don't know.''

`A lot of bombs'

Rodriguez said ``a lot of bombs'' exploded during the two days of fighting,
and that ``terrified'' residents were still huddling in their homes.

``There's not a single soldier in the town, nor any police. They took them
all away. We don't know how many people are dead and how many alive,'' he
said.

Then came a plaintive request: ``We need help from the Red Cross and the
government. We are all scared and don't know what will happen.''

A second Miraflores resident, who identified himself only as ``Mr.
Guavita,'' spoke by two-way radio with the Caracol radio network.

``Some houses were hit three or four times by rocket blasts and people are
dead,'' he said. ``My son's house was destroyed.

Exhaustion at hospital

``We need help because I think they are exhausted at the hospital,'' he
added. ``The hospital personnel have been working more than 24 hours.''

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, contrary to a
report on Colombian television Tuesday night.

``The weather was terrible yesterday. Planes flew over but they couldn't
land. It's too dangerous to land. . . . The strip is full of guerrillas,''
said the Rev. Belarmino Correa, bishop in San Jose de Guaviare, the state
capital.

Correa said FARC rebels have been spreading the word for three months that
they would attack any settlement in Guaviare state that housed a military
base.

``This takeover was completely foretold,'' he said.

The offensive prompted some Colombian peace supporters to suggest that
greater violence always precedes the onset of negotiations.

``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.''

Awakening Bogota

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

``One has to understand, first, that we are at war, an atrocious war, and
that just because it hasn't touched Bogota yet doesn't mean we aren't at
war,'' said Gustavo Alvarez Gardeazabal, governor of Valle del Norte state
where Cali, the nation's second-largest city, is located.

Copyright 1998 The Miami Herald

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)