San Francisco Chronicle PAGE A 14
WORLD

Colombia's Rebels FIex Their Muscles

Kidnappings, extortion build their war chests
RESURGENT GUERRILLAS
Colombia's guerrillas number 1O,OOO to 15,000 and operate in half of the
country's 1,066 municipalities. These are the three main rebel groups:

* The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, is the oldest
and largest rebel movement; it is deeply involved in the druc trade and now
seems content with consolidating regional power basos.

* The National Liberation Army (ELN) wants a Marxist state and is bettor
known for attacking oil pipelines.

* The much smaller and little known People's Liberation Army is believed to
be comprised of dissidents from the ELN and the Hope, Peace and Liborty
(EPL) party, a onetime guerrilla group that laid down its arms in 1991.

By John Otis
Chronicle Foreign Service

Bogota

Convinced that violence is the midwife of history, Colombia's
longestablished rebel groups are stepping up their war against the state
in a bloody campaign to build a socialist fatherland.

At a time when Marxist guerrillas from Mexico to Peru have been denuded,
disarmed or defeated, Colombia's insurgents are stronger than ever.

In June, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by the Spanish
nitials FARC, scored the biggest victory of their 33 yearold war.

In exchange for the release of 70 soldiers held hostage by the FARC for
nine months, the military temporarily retreated from an expanse of jungle
the size of Massachusettsthe first time a South American army has been
forced by rebels to abandon part of its national territory.

The army regularly absorbs punishing military blows. In early July, the
National Liberation Army (ELN), a force set up by radical Roman Catholic
priests in 1~, shot down an army helicopter, killing 21 people.

Although the guerrillas stand little chance of overthrowing the government,
Colombia's army lacks the will and the wherewithal to crush them.

'`The guerrillas are at the best moment in their history in terms of
territorial expansion, economic power and military strength," said Alfredo
Rangel, a former national security adviser to President Ernesto Samper.

Colombia's guerrillas might have suffered the same fate as the other failed
insurgencies throughout Latin America had it not been for this nation's
growing prominence as an oil exporter and supplier of much of the world's
cocaine.

By kidnapping oil technicians, extortinB foreign firms and levying
taxes on coca leaf growers and drug traffickers, the guerrillas have
gained a second wind. In the early 1980s, for example, the ELN had
been reduced to 36 members. But during the construction of an oil
pipeline in northern Colombia, the German firm Mannesmann reportedLY
paid a $4 million ransom to the rebels for four kidnapped engineers.
The money helped the ELN regroup, and today it numbers about 3,000.

Indeed, the FARC and the ELN have become the bestfinanced rebels in Latin
American history. Between 1991 and 1995, they collected nearly $450 million
annually, said Camilo Echandia, an adv iser to the government's high
commissioner for peace.

Their crimes prompt observers to label I the rebels "the third cartel"a
reference I to the Medellin and Cali drug cartelsor I bandits, plain and
simple.

"What I have seen of the guerrillas is that they are willing to kidnap
Americans for ransom.... And that doesn't strike me as too idealistic,"
said U.S. Ambassador Myles Frechette.

But Echandia calls the guerrillas a legitimate political force because
their crimes finance the war rather than lavish lifestyles. At the age of
66, FARC commander Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda still leads an austere
existence in the jungle.

Instead of providing order in remote areas, as promised, the rebel presence
has brought attacks from rightwing vigilantes, known as paramilitiaries,
against civilians thought to be sympathetic to the guerrillas. The
vigilantes have massacred thousands of mostly innocent people and,
according to estimates by human rights groups, have forced 920,000 people
from their homes since 1985one in every 40 Colombians

Potential rebel supporters are also alienated by the guerrillas' practice
of kidnapping farmers and small businessmen, burning buses and killing
peasant soldiers.

"The immense majority of Colombians don't support the guerrillas," said
Gabriel Izquierdo, director of the Center for Investigations and Popular
Education, a Bogota think tank.

The guerrillas, however, argue that the root causes for their uprising,
such as widespread poverty and unjust land distribution, have not been
addressed.

"It's true that the world has changed. Colombia has also changedfor the
worse," a recent FARC document says.

But even sympathizers say the rebels must craft a more sophistic ated
political program. The FARC manifestowhich calls for land reform,
increased state spending on the poor and the nationalization of key
industrieshas not been updated since 1964.

Yet the guerrillas press on, takng advantage of a power vacuum left by a
disgraced government. President Samper was accused of accepting 4;6 million
from drug Cartels during his 1994 campaign. The charges have weakened his
status as commander in chief and demoralized the armed forces.

In addition, the military has never developed an effective
counterinsurgency strategy. A recent study by the government's National
Security and Defense Council said that only 15 percent if the nation's
160,000 troops are in the field tracking the rebels.

The Clinton administration wants no part in the conflict,althugh it does
provide some military aid for antidrug efforts. Ironically, Washington
often seems more critical of the army than of the guerrillas, mainly
because of the widespread human rights abuses the military commits.

With the war effort flounderg, Samper has tried to promote peace. A week
ago, he fired General Harold Bedoya, the hardline armed forces commander
who opposed negotiating with the guerrillas. He also announced the creation
of a government peace commission.

"Although peace surely won't happen during my government, history would not
pardon me had I not taken this step toward achieving a bloodless end to the
war," he said in a speech on July 20.

The rebels, however, fear annihilation if they disarm; thousands
demobilized fighters were killed in tne past decade. But former rebel Otty
Patino predicted that if reach a militery stalemate, the rebels may be
ready to strike a because they have failed to win the war for Colombian
hearts and minds.

"People question war for war's sake," he said. "The guerrillas (ultimately)
going to have to find s different path. If they don't negotiate, they could
lose everything.

Oil PlPELlNE IS AN EASY TAR6ET

Oil exports brought S1.6 billion into the Colombian government's coffers in
1996 and prompted the rebels to step up their longrunning aHacks on
pipelines.

Bombings of the 480 mile Cano Limon pipeline from Arauca to the Caribbean
coast in the past decade alone have spilled more than 1.5 million barrels
of oil along 7S miles of environmentally fragile wetlandssix times more
than in the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989.

Running mostly through remote jungle terrain, the Cano Limon pipoline has
been a favorite target for guerrillas. So far this year, it has been
ottacked 42 times, compared with 45 times in 1996most recently on
Wednesday. It has been bombed 476 times since it opened in 1985.

WASHlNGTON POST