COLOMBIA REBELS' WAR CHEST SWELLS

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombia's leftist guerrilla groups have sharply
increased their earnings from drug trafficking, extortion and kidnapping in
the last four years, the respected news magazine Cambio 16 said Sunday.

Citing a confidential security service report drawn up last week, Cambio 16
said the rebels' income grew to $790 million last year from $592 million in
1994, when President Ernesto Samper took office.

In the same period the government nearly tripled its defense budget to
$2.65 billion this year from $926 million in 1994, according to Defense
Ministry figures.

Colombia's Marxist guerrillas, estimated to total more than 20,000, have
increased their power during Samper's government, striking the military
with increasing ease and leaving armed forces chiefs to appeal for even
bigger budgets, better weaponry and more troops.

Cambio 16 said the war chests of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC), Latin America's oldest rebel army, swelled more than $463 million
in 1997, with at least $312 million of that from drug-running.

The smaller Cuban-inspired National Liberation Army had a total income of
$341 million, $42 million of that from "war taxes" paid by the oil industry
and $98.5 million in extortion payments from the coal-mining sector, Cambio
16 said.

The FARC has denied charges it is a "narco-guerrilla" force with wholesale
links to the drug trade.

Marco Leon Calarca, FARC's international spokesman, would not confirm the
rebels' income.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)